It’s a tornado! It’s a funnel cloud! No, it’s “strong, straight-lined winds.”

Monday’s heavy rains and wind uprooted and snapped off some trees and even bent the four posts of a steel billboard, but weather officials said no tornadoes touched down in Bulloch County.

            A spokesman for the National Weather Service in Charleston, S.C., said the agency received no indications of tornado activity on radar. He said instruments picked up no detection of tornado activity and the service was not planning to send a damage survey team to the area. The spokesman said damage from Monday’s weather probably was caused by “strong, straight-line winds.”

            Early Monday evening, the Bulloch County Public Safety Department received reports of tornado-like damage around Highway 301 South near Ephesus Primitive Baptist Church.

            Public Safety director Ted Wynn said he sent a team to assess the reported damage and found several fallen trees. These trees were found on Union Church Road, Sinkhole Road, J.M. Strickland Road and J. Wynn Road. On Union Church Road, a tree had fallen on a vehicle.

The team cleared the damage and the roads were passable by 6 p.m.

Wynn said that because damage was so widespread, he doesn’t think there was a tornado in the area.

“There were trees down in various locations, which indicates strong winds, but we’re just not sure it’s a tornado,” Wynn said.