High winds left this utility pole, above, leaning at a dangerous angle Monday afternoon near homes on Pleasant School Road near Lake Whelchel. Don Blackwell, right, uses a chainsaw to cut up this large tree that fell from a yard into Limestone Street on Monday. Strong winds from a powerful storm toppled trees onto houses and cars here Monday.

The winds, which were part of the same system that dumped record rains on the East Coast, also caused sporadic power outages.

A fallen tree damaged several cars at a Limestone College parking lot, Cherokee County Emergency Preparedness Director Rick Peterson said.

Another large tree toppled onto Limestone Street, forcing officials to close a portion of the road.

Downed power lines also caused several small fires, Peterson said.

"The damage was scattered," he said.

Gaffney Board of Public Works General Manager Donnie Hardin said the outages were confined to Limestone Street and Pacolet Highway.

"We only had a handful of outages," he said. "We didn't have too many because we keep the right-of-ways cleared. We were very fortunate."

Peterson said the EOC recorded a top wind gust of 44 mph Monday morning.