Last night’s storms caused damage to the law enforcement center in Jefferson.

Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams explains what happened when their cell tower was hit by a surge of lightning.

“We had a few computers that got hit by a surge from the lightning strike. All of the E-911 … is on a really expensive surge protector, so it’s all safe and still working. But we do have a few systems that are not, until we can get them repaired and back up and running.”

He adds that he’s not sure if lightning actually struck the tower itself, but it was close enough to affect some of their non-vital, public systems. However, Williams points out the affected systems didn’t delay any of their day-to-day operations.

“For us it didn’t really affect much, as we do have backups, and it just got a few of the computers on one line in the building.”

He expects all systems to be back up and running later today. Williams says this is the second time this year that a lightning strike has affected operations at the law enforcement center.