Residents of Marshalltown woke to the booming sounds of thunder and flashes of lightning early Monday morning as a heavy thunderstorm made its way through the area and caused a temporary power outage across the city.

According to Morgan Hawk with Alliant Energy, about 3,000 of the company’s customers lost electricity at around 6:48 a.m., and power was restored by 8:11 a.m. after crews responded and did some switching work to end the disruption. Hawk said he did not expect any long-term issues as a result of the storm.

Marshall County Emergency Management Coordinator Kim Elder said she and the 911 communication center received reports of power outages in Marshalltown but did not hear any news of damage or outages in the rest of the county.

A social media post and email notification from the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office early Monday afternoon indicated that the administration building would be closed for the remainder of the day to allow for repairs to damage the storm caused.

Marshall County Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson said most county offices with the exception of conservation and secondary roads (while the sheriff’s administration office was closed, the department continued to conduct normal operations otherwise) were closed for the day Monday after a battery in a backup generator failed. As a result, the county’s computer system remained down into the afternoon, and there is no timeframe on when it will be fully operational again.

Jennifer Howard, who runs the Tremont Grille along with her husband JP, said the downtown restaurant, which typically draws a crowd for coffee and breakfast, opened “in the dark” for employees only at 7 a.m. as they waited for power to be restored.

“It just never stopped,” she said of the storm. “The thunder and lightning were just constant.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255

or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.