knocked tree
© Jeanne Reasonover/The TennesseanA tree knocked down during Monday's storms blocks the entrance to an apartment building on the 700 block of West Main Street in Franklin
Electric power was still expected to be out for thousands of Davidson County residents today as Middle Tennessee deals with wreckage from a storm system that produced three tornadoes and damaging straight-line winds.

On Monday, three EF-1 tornadoes touched down, with one striking in southern Davidson County and skipping into La Vergne, said Trevor Boucher of the National Weather Service in Nashville.

It went along the northern Williamson County and Davidson County lines, striking in La Vergne before sputtering out in Smyrna, he said.

That tornado was estimated to have winds of up to 100 miles per hour. An EF-1 category tornado can be 86 to 110 mph. The other two tornadoes hit Waverly and Dickson County.

More thunderstorms are headed to Middle Tennessee, possibly starting on Thursday. There is also a possibility of more thunderstorms over the weekend.

"They won't be nearly as powerful or extensive as the ones that just hit," Boucher said. "It looks like when we get the storms there will be warm weather."

Meanwhile, Davidson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties reported damage to homes, boats, sheds, power lines and trees. No deaths were reported, but there were some injuries.

"The damage that we've seen, it's not widespread, it's just kind of here and there," Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokesman Dean Flener said. "It was just such a huge swath of storms that just ran north to south across the whole state."

It will take several days to get estimates on the damage, Flener said.

Slow-going process

As of Tuesday evening, 7,600 Nashville Electric Service customers were without power. Crews are working to restore electricity and are removing trees that downed power lines. The storm broke more than 25 power poles, NES spokesman Tim Hill said.

"It is a slow-going process since the outages are not in a concentrated area and take as long to repair as a line serving several hundred customers does," Hill said.

Some families wish they only were dealing with power outages.

Eight homes on Battle Road near Cane Ridge Park were hit by the tornado that struck across Davidson and Rutherford counties.

The homes lost roofs, sending the families into shelter. The Nashville Area Red Cross is assisting the families.

Metro Nashville technicians continued to work on traffic signals that remained out of service. Work crews removed debris from 130 places, clearing roads.

The winds damaged more than three-dozen trees at Cheekwood museum and gardens. At least 37 large trees were uprooted or split in half and must be taken down to ensure the safety of visitors and staff, museum officials said Tuesday.

Cheekwood will be closed today and Thursday.