MOUNT VERNON — Severe thunderstorms with pounding rain drove through Knox County Wednesday afternoon knocking down trees and hitting the Knox County Service Center with lightning.
A lightning strike at the Knox County Service Center in Mount Vernon did damage to computer systems in the building. The extent of the damage might not become apparent for a few days, according to John Alberts, county maintenance supervisor.
“I can’t say we took a direct hit on the roof,” he said. “There’s no burnt spot there. It might have been one of the lines coming into the building (that got hit) where we had too much power coming into the building. We had the firewall for the county computers go down, though. It seems like it takes about a week for everybody to figure out what’s working and not working. It takes about a week before they miss whatever is damaged.”
Alberts said technicians would be called in to look at the system. The only thing he knew for sure early this morning was the computer system controlling cooling towers and pumps in the building was not in communication with that equipment.
