Weekend death toll hits 18
Southern tornadoes add to casualties after violent storms strike in Georgia
ADEL, GEORGIA — Emergency responders rushed to answer new reports of deaths and injuries Sunday evening in southern Georgia as violent storms already blamed for killing 18 people in the Southeast continued to inflict destruction.
An apparent tornado blew through a mobile home park early Sunday in southern Georgia’s rural Cook County — sheering off siding, upending homes and killing seven people, local authorities said. An eighth death was reported in Cook County by state officials, although it was unclear whether that victim lived in the park.
Two people apiece were confirmed dead in neighboring Georgia counties, bringing the state’s toll to 12 a day after a reported tornado killed four in Mississippi. And the deadly weather wasn’t over as night fell Sunday. Search and rescue operations were underway Sunday night in Dougherty County, where a reported tornado carved a long path of destruction at about 3 p.m., said Sedon Burns, the county’s chief deputy emergency manager. The county is home to Albany, southwest Georgia’s largest city with about 76,000 residents.
“We know we have fatalities and a lot of injuries,” said Burns, who declined to estimate how many were dead or hurt. “And there is substantive damage to one of our trailer parks.”
An Associated Press reporter arriving in Albany saw several police and State Patrol cars heading to one area with lights flashing, as well as three ambulances. There were downed trees along the road and traffic signals were without power. A helicopter hovered overhead not far away.
About 12 hours earlier — and 60 miles to the southeast — an apparent tornado “leveled” a Cook County mobile home park before dawn Sunday and emergency responders searched for survivors for hours after the twister struck, said Coroner Tim Purvis. Purvis said the park had about 40 mobile homes, and roughly half were destroyed.
The area was cordoned off by police.
Not far from the mobile home park, 19-year-old Jenny Bullard wore a sling on her injured arm as she combed through the rubble of her family’s brick house. All that remained standing Sunday afternoon was the master bedroom and parts of the kitchen.
“It’s a horrible tragedy,” Bullard said. “But all this stuff can be replaced. We can’t replace each other. We’re extremely lucky.”
Bullard said she awoke before dawn Sunday to the sound of hail pounding the roof. When she went outside her bedroom door, she was knocked down by a collapsing wall in the hallway. She managed to get up and found her father calling for her, trapped under debris.