Staff, wire report
GRIFFIN, Georgia — A huge, swirling storm system has killed at least seven people in the south and spurred suspected Georgia tornadoes that have sporadically damaged homes and businesses, uprooted trees and cut power across much of the state Thursday.
Once the hazardous weather passed, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief responders surveyed the damage and prepared to dispatch chainsaw teams and other volunteers to help with cleanup efforts if needed.
Media reports showed that roofs of houses were blown off and walls of department stores collapsed.
A passenger died when a tree fell on a vehicle during the storm in Jackson, Georgia, Butts County Coroner Lacey Prue said. In the same county, southeast of Atlanta, the storm appeared to have knocked a freight train off the tracks, officials said.
Across the state line in Alabama, at least six deaths have been confirmed, and officials estimate 40 to 50 homes were damaged or destroyed by storms that sliced a strip through Autauga County, said Ernie Baggett, the county’s emergency management director. He said crews on Thursday night were focused on cutting down fallen trees to search for anyone who might have been injured.
In Selma, brick buildings collapsed, cars lay on their sides, and traffic poles were scattered downtown. Plumes of thick black smoke rose from a blazing fire over the city. It was not immediately known whether the storm caused the fire.
The “large and extremely dangerous tornado” caused damage as it moved through the historic city, the National Weather Service said. There have been confirmed reports of tree and structure damage in Selma and reports of damage in other counties, the agency said.
Statewide, there were 33 separate tornado reports from the National Weather Service as of Thursday evening. However, the reports have not yet been confirmed and some of them could later be reclassified as wind damage after assessments are made in the coming days.
Malesha McVay drove parallel to the tornado less than a mile from her home before suddenly making a swerve.
“We stopped and prayed,” she said. “It was 100% god that it made a right turn before it hit my house.”
She took a video of the giant twister turning black as it swept from house to house.
“It would hit a house and black smoke would erupt,” she said. “It was very frightening.”
Multiple tornado warnings were issued in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee on Thursday as the storm system moved through the region.
In Georgia, more than 100,000 customers were without power just before sundown on Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us, as the storm system carved its way through a number of counties south of Atlanta.
The storm hit Griffin, south of Atlanta, where a Hobby Lobby store partially lost its roof and at least one car was overturned in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart.
Damage was also reported west of downtown Atlanta in Douglas County and Cobb County, with the Cobb County government releasing a damage report showing a crumbling concrete block wall at a warehouse in suburban Austell.
In Kentucky, the National Weather Service in Louisville confirmed an EF-1 tornado hit Mercer County and said crews were investigating damage in a handful of other counties. There have been reports of downed trees, power outages and other isolated damage from storms sweeping through the state.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
