The ferocity of Sunday’s thunderstorm caught Sumnerville’s Kevin Young by surprise.

The 41-year-old was working in his kitchen when heard the wind pick up and saw the rain falling outside.

“I didn’t realize how windy it was,” Young said. “The next thing I knew I heard the loud bang… it was like ‘oh my gosh.’ And then the power went out.”

The bang Young heard was the sound of a tree splitting in half and falling onto the southwest corner of his home in the 60000 block of Creek Road in Cass County.

“It’s hard to tell how much damage has been caused, but I don’t think it is anything major,” he said. “It was pretty much half the tree because it split right down the middle.”

The line of strong thunderstorms that swept through the Midwest Sunday afternoon caused damage throughout Berrien and Cass counties.

Mike Bradley, chief deputy with the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department, said the storm did the most damage to the center part of Berrien County, knocking down many trees and power lines.

“We are getting reports of smaller limbs on houses, but the main thing is road blockages and lines and power lines down,” Bradley said. “We haven’t gotten any reports of severe damage to any homes or buildings yet.”

As of around 5 p.m., Bradley said about 21,700 households were without power in Berrien County, accounting for about 27 percent of households.

“We’ve been in contact with American Electric Power (AEP) and they’ve got crews out,” he said.

Bradley was unaware of any storm-related injuries as of around 5 p.m.

“We had no reports of tornadoes in the county, just strong straight line winds. We got a couple reports of shelf clouds,” he said. “Nobody reported any rotation to us. So far, the damage we’ve seen is conducive to straight line winds.”

Sean Wakefield, Cass County dispatcher, said his department received few reports of damage to homes.

A tornado warning was issued for Cass County, but Wakefield said he wasn’t aware of any tornado sightings. He reported no injuries as of around 5:15 p.m.

More than 6,800 customers were without power in Cass County Sunday afternoon, according to Indiana Michigan Power.