It doesn’t matter if it’s hot, cold, windy or rainy – Covington County’s emergency personnel are here to serve.

To them, it doesn’t matter if it’s a car wreck at 2 a.m., an afternoon house fire in the middle of a sudden downpour or responding to a broken gas line or down-ed power line at midnight. They will be on scene when they’re needed most.

And during the last three days, as heavy winds and rain whipped through the areas, there have been plenty of opportunities to lend a helping hand.

Mark Parker, Covington Electric Cooperative’s vice president of community relations, said that since Monday, 1,972 customers have experienced weather-related power outages.

“And that includes everything from lightning strikes to trees come down on power lines,” Parker said. “Our guys handled 1,060 calls for service. We’ve got between 35-40 guys that are available to handle that load on a regular basis, who come out all hours of the night, to make sure the power comes back on.”

Susan Harris, the county’s emergency management agency director, said she’s received reports of two homes and one car with minor to moderate damage because of the weather.

According to the 911 dispatch center, dispatchers have taken at least 30 weather-related calls during the last three days and sent crews to handle – as of Wednesday afternoon – 28 downed trees.

Volunteer firemen have also been busy, 911 reports show. One such call occurred just before lunch Wednesday when volunteers with the Buck Creek and Antioch volunteer fire departments responded to a house fire at a home on Antioch Road – just as the day’s severe thunderstorms began. The men were doused with rain, just as they quickly doused the small fire.

Harris reminded motorists to yield to the right-of-way when emergency personnel such as police, fire and rescue are responding to an emergency.