March left the foothills area like a lion as winds on Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30 knocked out power to approximately 4,000 area residents and businesses.

Local fire departments kept busy over the weekend responding to downed trees and power lines.

Polk County Emergency Management Director Bobby Arledge said early Sunday morning Duke Energy advised there were a little over 4,000 without power but were working to get power restored. By later Sunday there were roughly 1,000 still without power in Polk. The areas with the heaviest power outages were in Columbus, Tryon and Saluda.

The Town of Columbus reported approximately 25 calls for trees down.

The Tryon Fire Department responded to 21 calls between 9 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, according to Tryon Fire Chief Joey Davis.

Davis said the north side of Tryon lost power around midnight Saturday and some parts of Lake Lanier were still without power Monday morning, March 31. The Town of Tryon’s generator kept water sources operating from the lake.

Arledge said there were no reports made of any damage to homes or property in the county although there were a couple of motor vehicle accidents that occurred when cars ran into down trees in roadways. There were no injuries reported, according to Arledge.

Davis said in Tryon a large tree did some damage to a car shed at the One Tryon Place condominiums.