At approximately 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Upson County - and that prediction was right on the mark.

Within minutes, high winds, lightening and heavy rains pummeled the area, knocking down trees and leaving thousands without power.

A press release issued from Upson EMC states approximately 3500 customers experienced outages on Wednesday evening. The majority of the outages were restored by midnight. About 50 percent of the city's utility customers were without power for approximately two hours.

"All of the county volunteer fire departments were going though the area checking for downed trees and power lines," said Billy Mitcham with the emergency management services in Upson County. "Trees are down in the entire area. Several buildings sustained some degree of damage in the city and county as well. We were fortunate to have had no reports of any injuries."

Minutes before the severe weather hit the area, the National Weather Service called the local 911 center to warn of the storm. The warning was also heard over the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) radio.

"We encourage people to get one of these radios," said Mitcham. "These radios can be purchased at any electronics store such as Radio Shack. Make sure when you purchase one of these radios that it is Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) capability. This will code in in different counties.."

Mitcham said this is the time of year for more unpredictable and sometimes dangerous weather. An NOAA radio can help residents get prepared for a storm.