A strong line of thunderstorms with heavy rain and tornadic potential rolled through the St. Louis region Sunday night, resulting in damage reports mostly in the areas of Waterloo and Hecker in Monroe County.

At about 8:15 p.m., the Hecker Fire Department responded to a report of power lines down over the roadway on Route 156 near Cemetery Road.

Shortly after this call, the Waterloo Fire Department responded to Route 156 at Susewind Lane between Waterloo and Hecker for broken power poles over the roadway.

Due to the damage in this area, the Monroe County Emergency Management Agency closed Route 156 at Goeddeltown Road east of Waterloo.

The WFD also responded about 8:30 p.m. to downed wires on Route 3 near Vandebrook Drive. Monroe County Electric Cooperative said a tree took down a transmission pole and the lines south of the Vandebrook intersection and crews are working on the downed lines between Waterloo and Hecker.

“We have a lot of outages coming in from the storm that just hit, the MCEC posted on Facebook. “We have reports of downed lines. Assume they are still hot and stay away.”

Per MCEC, Route 156 will be shut down between Waterloo and Hecker through Sunday night.

Waterloo police also blocked the roadway on Park Street in town for a downed branch around this time.

Yet another call for the WFD was for metal from a small shed blown into power lines resulting in sparking in the 5600 block of LRC Road.

The Monroe County EMA said it was focusing its efforts on the Waterloo/Hecker area to assist first responders and assess Sunday’s storm damage.

An EMA official also reported a broken pole and wires down over the roadway on Fischer Road north of Maeystown, resulting in the Maeystown Fire Department being paged for assistance.

A Valmeyer Fire Department official also notified EMA that per Union Pacific, the railroad crossings in Monroe County were not being activated due to lack of power.