Just over two weeks into cleanup efforts after the worst ice storm in the state’s history swept through the region, a comparative burst of high winds and pounding rains rolled through the area early Wednesday evening.

The results were widespread wind damage to many locations, with Floyd, Johnson, Pike, Martin and Magoffin counties taking hard hits.

According to the National Weather Service in Jackson, the area measuring the strongest gusts of wind across the state was recorded at Big Sandy Regional Airport in nearby Martin County. There, wind gusts peaked at 71 miles an hour at just after 5 p.m.

It was around this time when most residents said they first took notice of the storm.

Retired dentist and Prestonsburg resident Garland Godsey said he heard noise from the storm at about 5 p.m. and went into his back yard to inspect.

“When I got out here, I first saw our patio furniture moving all over the place,” Godsey said, pointing to a debris riddled section of patio just to the left of the swimming pool in his back yard on South Arnold Avenue. “The glass top from the table had come loose and went into the pool, so I got in there and got it out.”

Godsey’s wife, Wonnell, inspected a line of fallen trees just behind the swimming pool that once provided privacy for the couple.

“It just took these trees out by the roots,” she said, standing beside one of the downed trees.

The Godseys have lived in the house for the past four decades, and agree that it could have been worse.

Winds and rain combined to lay flat billboards at the junction of Route 1428 and Cliff Road, blew over pop machines and damaged a barn roof at Emma in Floyd County. At Miller’s Creek in Johnson County, ripping winds blew the roof from a house, according to reports filed by the Jackson Weather Service, and tore apart an area just past the Floyd County line.

Less than half a mile past the Floyd County line, in the Mendota Village area of Johnson County, residents stood in groups outside battered homes yesterday. Nell Conley, wrapped inside her coat that morning, circled her home with her son, Brian.

The storm pulled her back porch off the side of her two-story house, tossing it over the home and onto a car parked in her front driveway.

“It was just this loud roar,” Conley said. “I had just turned on my television to watch the news when it started.”

Conley said she noticed from a back window of the house that the posts holding up the back porch were loose and “flopping back and forth.” She then repositioned herself in the front living room.

“I know you’re supposed to take certain cover when this happens, but I couldn’t think about anything then,” she said. “When I looked out the front window, I saw the porch sitting on top of my car.”

Conley’s next door neighbor, Steve Hall, knocked on her door a short time later.

“He said he thought the worst of it was over and that I should come over to their house,” Conley said.

Conley waited out the rest of the storm with Hall and his wife, Wilda.

In Pike County, there were reports of numerous trees that had fallen and blocked areas of Greasy Creek and Shelbiana, while winds tore the siding from the Coal Run Fire Department in that section of the county.

A familiar result of the high winds was power outages caused by trees falling across power lines during the early evening storm. Many who had just seen power restored to their homes in the wake of the ice storm late last month were again without electricity Wednesday evening.

Kentucky Power reported Thursday that roughly 37,000 of their customers were without power during the severe storm, adding that the storm had caused “excessive damage” to the company’s electrical facilities, ranging from the downed power lines to broken utility poles.

Many residents saw power restored in the early morning hours yesterday, while workers continued to deal with the remaining outages throughout the day.