Tuesday tornado, winds down trees, power lines, damage southwest Georgia homes

Alan Mauldin, The Albany Herald, Ga.
·2 min read

Apr. 6—ALBANY — The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee, Fla., has confirmed one tornado from Tuesday afternoon storms and is investigating reports of two other potential twisters in southwest Georgia's Baker and Mitchell counties.

"In terms of tornadoes, we can say definitively we had one in Early and Miller counties," Kelly Godsey, senior service hydrologist at the office, said Wednesday. "We also had a tornado reported in Baker County (where) we're seeing at least 40 trees down. We have a (weather spotter) witness to the tornado in Baker County. In Mitchell County, we're still investigating whether the damage was a tornado."

A University of Georgia weather station in Mitchell County recorded wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour. The damage in Baker County was primarily located about 10 miles west of Baconton, and in Mitchell County in the area of the Keystone Foods chicken processing facility on U.S. Highway 19 and Greenough Road.

Investigators had not visited the Baker and Mitchell County sites, and the office was looking at another potential round of severe weather on Wednesday that was expected to kick off in the mid-afternoon, sparked by storms in the Florida Panhandle, and move into southwest Georgia later in the evening and nighttime.

No injuries or deaths were reported as a result of the storms, Godsey said.

"We know in a number of instances trees were down and (there were) damaged homes," he said. "This is our severe weather season. This is what we would expect to see in early April."

Godsey encouraged residents to stay tuned to multiple sources for weather alerts, such as weather radios and phone apps as well as tune into news outlets and to stay "weather-alert" to stay as safe as possible.

The most dreaded storms for weather personnel and the public are those that strike in the middle of the night, and a source of information can be a life-saver.

"We know these alerts make a difference, especially in these hazardous conditions," he said. "Sometimes we put out alerts a couple of days in advance of an event."

Individuals and families also should have a plan, particularly those who live in less structurally sound homes or mobile homes. In those cases, Godsey said, the plan should include staying with someone else during a severe weather event.