A severe storm that produced powerful winds and torrential rain passed through a section of Rockmart Thursday evening, damaging parts of the Rockmart High School athletic complex.

Lightning had forced the football team to take cover just before 7 p.m. while the Yellow Jackets were warming up for an intrasquad scrimmage and rain began to fall around 7:30 p.m. followed by high winds.

A large section of fence down the left field side of the baseball field was brought down and many of the poles bent that held it and a wind screen.

According to Rockmart athletic director Dan Duff, sections of the visitor dugout roofs on both the baseball and softball fields were blown off and the window of the press box at the baseball field was blown out.

Reports also indicated that a section of aluminum bleachers at the softball field was moved approximately three feet by the wind.

The storm ended quickly and, after waiting for lightning to move out of the area, the football team scrimmaged for almost 40 minutes before the threat of more lightning persuaded coaches to end the event.

Check out prepcentral to see video coverage of the damage