MADISONVILLE, Texas — Severe weather in Madison County Wednesday night left power lines downed, trees and limbs knocked over and businesses and residents without power on Thursday.
Electric crews worked to restore power in larger areas, but some are still waiting.
Businesses like gas stations, fast food restaurants and convenience stores could not open due to a lack of electricity.
The Eagle Mart, a convenience store, had a sign posted, stating it was closed.
Deanna Lehman, the manager, says she usually sees hundreds of people enter the doors a day, but the power had been out since 8 a.m.
The power outage shut down freezers that kept food items like ice cream, dairy products and sodas cool.
She will have to throw the items away because of the heat.
"I lose thousands of dollars because of this. Just in business alone, I'm losing that much, but I'll be losing at least that much in product also," Lehman said.
"It's not a good day."
Lehman says the business makes at least $2,500 from in-store sales and at least $4,000 from the gas pumps a day.
She expected the power to be on by the end of the day, but she will still lose profits.
For residents, churches like the First Baptist Church in Madisonville have provided shelter for those affect by the storm Wednesday night and operated as a cooling, WiFi and charging station.
According to Shelly Butts, the emergency management coordinator of Madison County, says the church has provided shelter for years during natural disasters like hurricanes.
"They had about 12 or 13 folks here. They did have folks upstairs and downstairs. For them, a nice, cool place to be and something for them to sleep on," Butts said.
The church was prepared to shelter people whose power was not on but has not received a call that it was needed. Therefore, the shelter was discontinued.