DEL.ICIO.US6,000 homes damaged in storms
Insured losses at least $50 million, says state official
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/12/08
The Mother's Day storms that raked Georgia damaged 6,000 homes statewide, the state insurance commissioner said Monday.
"We've set the insured losses as at least $50 million," Commissioner John Oxendine said.
 Jessica McGowan / AJC |
| Police survey the damage to a house on Vanity Joy's Lane in the Katherine Village neighborhood in Ellenwood on May 11, 2008. Early morning storms damaged parts of Ellenwood and residents try to clean up. |
He added that the figure is preliminary and "will probably increase."
In Clayton County, officials updated the number of damaged homes there to 188, including 53 rendered unlivable.
The county's top executive also said he has asked for and received a promise of state aid.
"I called the governor personally and we are on the list for state and possibly federal help," County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said Monday. "We are just fortunate we had no injuries. We even had a little 8-year-old boy who slept through it. The wall where he was sleeping blew completely off his house and he slept through it."
Clayton intially was not on the list of counties under an emergency declaration. Counties must request such a designation.
Clayton, where a pre-dawn tornado tore through the Ellenwood area in northeast tip of the county, was the hardest-hit metro Atlanta county. But the storms also spawned damaging winds and twisters in neighboring South Fulton, as well as in Carroll and Douglas counties to the west.
Some of the heaviest damage was in middle Georgia, including Macon and several counties to its east.
About three miles south-southwest of Dublin, an unidentified man in his early 50s was killed and his wife sustained "very critical" injuries when a twister destroyed a double-wide mobile home, the National Weather Service reported. The couple's two children also were hurt but were expected to live.
Remarkably, no other serious injuries were reported around the state.
At Macon State College, roofs were sheared on two of its campus buildings, and the tree canopy was devastated, said Bill Weaver, a college spokesman. Part of the gymnasium's roof was blown off, damaging adjacent tennis courts. Roofing materials were stripped from the student life center, leaving bare plywood.
At the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, which lost about 100 trees and sustained mostly roof and door damage to five buildings, the storm hit one day after four commencement ceremonies. None of the school's 10,500 students were on campus Sunday morning, spokeswoman Lisa Ledbetter said.
Carroll County's school system canceled classes Monday.
The National Weather Service said the number of confirmed tornadoes statewide -- initially pegged at six -- could climb as its teams comb the state Monday to confirm reports and inspect damage.
The weather-monitoring agency is sending teams from its Peachtree City offices into south Fulton and 10 other counties -- most of them in east-central Georgia -- to determine whether damage was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds.
Monday morning, about 1,600 metro Atlanta customers and 43,000 statewide still were without electricity. At the height of the outages, 253,000 Georgia Power customers were in the dark. Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson said the utility had 980 people, including crews from Alabama Power, working to restore electricity.
The utility initially said it would have all power in the Atlanta area restored Sunday night, but later had to back off from that promise. High winds late Sunday had Georgia Power crews "going in circles," said Wilson. "We get one [area] fixed, and another goes down."
Winds gusting to 30 mph and higher continued to plague repair crews at daybreak Monday.
Meanwhile, hundreds of homeowners began the task of cleaning up and figuring out where they will live while repairs are made.
Clayton officials sent dozens of county prison inmates to damaged subdivisions to help. Huge blue tarps flapped in the breeze on the roofs of houses in the Stagecoach Village subdivision Monday morning as the inmates filled several dump trucks parked along the streets.
Several private contractors were also in the area, starting repairs on some of the damaged homes.
"We had police out there clearing and screening everyone in the area," said Bell, the commission chairman. "There's been no looting, no fires, no problems."
Prisoners spent Monday cutting trees and other debris from sidewalks and residents' yards.
Clayton schools set up counseling for the children who live in the affected areas.
"Any child who has to re-locate will stay at their school. We want to make sure their is no interruption to their education," Bell said.
While no injuries were reported, some residents complained that they did not hear the tornado alarms sound.
"There is new construction over there so we're going to reappraise the alarms to make sure everybody can hear them in the county," Bell said.
Clayton officials said 23 families had sought Red Cross assistance and 13 asked for help finding a place to live.
South Fulton reported only a handful of damaged homes but numerous downed trees and power lines. In Douglas County, downed trees closes some roads and damage was reported early Sunday to homes and cars in two subdivisions, including St. Andrews Country Club.
The Weather Service said the tornado touchdowns happened in this sequence Sunday morning:
-- Carroll and Douglas counties - two tornadoes, 4:10 a.m.
-- Clayton, Henry, Rockdale and Newton counties, 5:10 a.m.
-- Bibb and Twiggs counties, 5:50 a.m.
-- Laurens County, 6:36 a.m.
-- Toombs County, 7:25 a.m.
Additional tornadoes may have struck Fulton County, along with Johnson, Treutlen and Troup counties, the Weather Service said.
Staff writers S.A. Reid, Mary MacDonald and Christian Boone and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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