Southern storms
Tornadoes touch down in several states, but Tennessee Valley spared
Two rounds of storms that prompted schools to send students home early and left much of the region on a tornado watch Wednesday night turned out to be mostly bark and no bite — at least in the Chattanooga region.
As early as Tuesday evening, school systems started calling off classes or abbreviating the day with orders to send kids home at noon or earlier in anticipation of the coming storms in the tri-state region. Many school systems that hadn’t already canceled classes for the day released students at noon or by the early afternoon.
Minimal power outages were reported in Chattanooga on Wednesday evening, with surrounding counties also suffering only a few power losses, although there were reports of quartersized hail in parts of Marion County.
Scattered power outages were reported early in the day in North Georgia and South and Central Alabama, but nothing widespread, according to outage maps, the utilities’ Twitter feeds and emergency officials.
The Sand Mountain Electric Cooperative had reported outages by about mid-morning Wednesday in the Henagar, Ala., area because of a lightning strike, temporarily knocking out power along a city street, at the police department and some businesses, as well as numerous homes.
A service department official said about 220 homes and businesses were without power after the strike. Power was restored by 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the official said.
In Atlanta — directly in the stormy weather cross-hairs all day on Wednesday — the Federal Aviation Administration halted flights Wednesday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as storms continued to pummel the heart of the Peach State.
Officials at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport also warned travelers to be prepared for delays and cancellations because of the weather.
By Wednesday night, nearly half of Delta Air Lines’ eight departures were canceled from Chattanooga. Of the flights that did take off, many travelers were affected by delays.
Harry Neilsen was traveling from Chattanooga to Pittsburgh through
Atlanta and said he wasn’t sure he’d get home Wednesday.
“I’ll probably be sleeping at an airport,” he said. “Sooner or later, I’ll get there. I’ve got to be patient.”
Frank Reiland, of Chattanooga, said his flight to Toronto via Atlanta was delayed an hour. Reiland said he was worried about getting there and hopeful the delay was just an hour.
Just more than four months ago a tornado outbreak claimed five lives in the Chattanooga region, three in Rosalie, Ala., and two in Ocoee, Tenn. Tornadoes on Nov. 30 touched down in Tennessee in McMinn, Polk, Marion and Sequatchie counties and storm damage was reported in as many as nine other counties that day.
Elsewhere throughout the Southeast, severe storms unleashed one large tornado and more than a half dozen apparent twisters Wednesday, toppling trees, roughing up South Carolina’s “peach capital” and raining out golfers warming up for the Masters.
A powerful tornado toppled trees and downed power lines in rural Georgia and similar scenes played out in spots around Alabama and South Carolina amid drenching rain, high winds and scattered hail — some as big as baseballs.
Forecasters said a wide area across much of the three states was under threat of powerful, long-lived tornadoes.
The severe weather outbreak was the second to hit the South in less than a week, but no deaths or significant injuries were reported by Wednesday evening. Storms on Sunday and Monday killed five people, including a Mississippi woman who desperately called 911 from a car that plunged into a rain-swollen creek.
Authorities in Johnston, S.C., a town of 2,300 that calls itself The Peach Capital of the World, reported a possible tornado there damaged about a dozen buildings. Crews couldn’t immediately check nearby peach orchards but authorities said those were already severely damaged by a late March hard freeze.
Johnston Mayor Terrence Cullbreath said he opened a local armory as a shelter and that lights were out and many streets were blocked by fallen trees. Thousands had lost power across the three states Wednesday, with utilities struggling to keep up.
“We need power back,” Cullbreath said by phone. “But there likely are more storms coming and they can’t get the power back in bad weather.”
In southwest Georgia, a powerful tornado that touched down at midday traveled some distance on the ground in rural Stewart County, National Weather Service Meteorologist Keith Stellman said. It left downed power lines and trees on roads, said Sandra James, a sheriff’s office dispatcher.
Elsewhere, a suspected tornado touched down in southeastern Alabama, before crossing into Georgia, forecasters said. All told at least nine possible tornadoes had been reported across Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina as the day wore on with more reports likely as the storms continued into the evening.
In Alabama, the storm hit an area dotted with vacation and full-time homes around Lake Eufaula, damaging some homes and knocking down power lines and trees, said official John Taylor, with the Henry County Emergency Management Agency. He also reported no deaths or injuries there.
Tornadoes weren’t the only threat Wednesday. The nation’s Storm Prediction Center said winds were blowing at near 70 mph in some areas, downing trees in several states.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency and deployed 50 National Guard soldiers. There also were multiple school closings in Alabama and many early dismissals in South Carolina.
And as storms bore down on Augusta National, the venerable east Georgia club shut down for the second time this week as golfers tried to get in some practice before the start of the Masters tournament later this week. Officials cut short the final afternoon practice and ordered rain-bedraggled fans to leave the course. Augusta National also closed Monday because of heavy rains.
In the east Alabama city of Oxford, convenience store manager Don Copeland was working up courage to go outside and look at his truck after a storm dumped so much grape-sized hail the ground turned white.
“It’s a 2015. I just made a $550 payment this morning,” Copeland said.