A squall line packing heavy rain and 60-70 mph winds cut through Warren County Tuesday afternoon dropping trees and power lines and leaving more than 9,000 people in the county without power.

Although the National Weather Service is still assessing the effects of the storm, National Weather Service Meteorologist Eric Carpenter said widespread damaging straight-line winds are likely to blame for the damage.

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said downed trees with power lines in them are “scattered across the county.

“We have a tree on a house on Woodland Hills (Road) and a tree on a car on Dana Road,” he said.

Carpenter said while a tornado watch will remain in effect through 6 p.m., Warren County should “just” experience some lingering rain throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening.

“They got us this time,” Entergy Customer Service Manager Shelia McKinnis said. “We have 9,364 people in Warren County without power. We don’t have a damage assessment yet but I’m hearing there are a lot of trees down. Most of the outages are down Highway 61 South.”

Vicksburg Warren School District schools dismissed after the storm, and school district officials said they were working with Warren County Emergency Management to make sure it was safe to put school buses on the road in the wake of reports of downed trees scattered throughout the county.

“We continue to work with emergency management so if there are areas with debris on the road we can find alternate routes,” school district spokesperson Christi Kilroy said. “We’ve advised our parents that if their students are riding a bus they may arrive a little late because of that and we are keeping them updated.”

She said school officials are working with the county “to make sure our bus drivers know those (road problems) and we can find alternate routes to get those students home.”

Carpenter said the squall line preceded a cool front that is expected to bring lower temperatures with the high Wednesday at 75 with a low Wednesday night of 55 and high Thursday of 78.