ADEL — A tornado tore through Adel Thursday afternoon, tearing off roofs and destroying buildings, according to witnesses.

A tornado warning had been issued by the National Weather Service around 1:45 p.m. for Cook County.

Johnny West, Cook County’s emergency management director, said there was damage all over the county and “heavy damage” in the city.

The twister, which had been sighted by law enforcement, ripped through the town about a block from the offices of the Adel News-Tribune on South Hutchinson Street, said Maria Hardman, the newspaper’s general manager.

The city’s old train depot on South Burwell Avenue was heavily damaged, she said.

Traffic lights in Adel were down on the ground, Hardman said.

The storm resulted in at least two traffic accidents, one involving a semi-truck on Ga. 37 which had overturned, and the other involving a vehicle slamming into an overpass pylon on I-75, she said.

Hardman was unaware of any injuries or deaths.

Damage in the county was caused by a combination of straight-line winds and the tornado, said Wright Dobbs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee, Fla., office.

This was the first tornado to hit the Adel area since Jan. 22, 2017, when a twister hit a trailer park near the city in the predawn hours, killing eight.