MOULTRIE, Ga. — A massive storm system that left at least four people dead across the South brought lightning to Colquitt County but not the strong winds that had been feared.

“Looks like we dodged a bullet,” said Russell Moody, Colquitt County emergency management director. “When it cooled down last night it fell apart a little bit. We got right on that line where it was (strengthening) again.”

No injuries were reported in the county and no structural damage was reported, Moody said.

“There were a few trees down in roadways,” he said.

The maximum wind speed recorded in Moultrie while the storm moved through was about 23 miles per hour, according to the University of Georgia monitoring station located at Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition at Spence Field. That was recorded at 10:15 a.m.

Workers were wrapping up removing trees from roadways by 11 a.m. Friday.

The storm system did not bring a significant amount of rainfall and Moody said he knew of no dirt roads that had damage from the event.

On Monday afternoon the National Weather Service was predicting the storm could bring wind gusts as high as 80 miles per hour and potentially spawn tornadoes in the area.

Because the worst of the storm’s effects were predicted to hit Colquitt County between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., a time frame when school buses could have been making morning pickups, the school system canceled classes on Friday as a precaution.

The NWS issued tornado watches and severe lightning warnings over much of Friday morning.

Last Sunday, a tornado rated at EF-1 touched down briefly in the county, damaging several houses, barns and outbuildings, downing trees and overturning farm irrigation systems.