More storms to hit North Georgia Wed. night

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A new round of severe weather is expected to hit north Georgia Wednesday night after storms left a trail of widespread damage in northwest Georgia and killed five people in Alabama.

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John Spink, jspink@ajc.com Power crews were out dealing with numerous outages caused by downed trees and power lines like this one at Marietta Road and Spring Avenue in Atlanta that hampered truck traffic trying to make deliveries to nearby businesses.

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Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com CALM BEFORE THE STORM? - Olga Vergara and her 3-year-old son Oscar Servantes, Norcross, shed their shoes for a walk along the banks of the Chattahochee River at Jones Bridge Park in Norcross on Tuesday, April 26, 2011.

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Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com Olga Vergara and her 3-year-old son Oscar Servantes, Norcross, shed their shoes for a walk along the banks of the Chattahochee River at Jones Bridge Park in Norcross on Tuesday, April 26, 2011.

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The National Weather Service says the next storm system should begin to approach the northwest Georgia border around 6 p.m.

Extensive wind damage was reported in Floyd, Gordon, Haralson and Dade counties, including damage on the campuses of Berry College and Shorter University near Rome.

Berry College officials released the following statement late Wednesday morning:

"Classes are canceled today. Many large trees are down around campus resulting in extensive damage, but no injuries. The campus is currently closed to the public."

The Rome News-Tribune reported on its website that windows were blown out at Redmond Regional Medical Center and the hospital was operating on emergency generators.

Carol Boatright, a spokeswoman for Georgia Power, said 27,000 of the utility's customers were without electricity at 10 a.m. Most of those outages were in the Rome area, with scattered outages in the Cedartown, Dalton and Cartersville areas, she said.

The roof was blown off a building in downtown Calhoun, the National Weather Service reported.

A tornado watch that had been posted until noon for 42 Georgia counties, including metro Atlanta, was canceled around 10 a.m. as the immediate threat of severe weather eased.

The National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm warnings for Cobb, Fulton, Clayton, Douglas, Coweta, Cherokee, Paulding, Gilmer, Pickens, Bartow, Gordon, Murray, Polk, Walker and Whitfield counties.

A tornado watch was issued for metro Atlanta Wednesday morning, and tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for several Georgia counties, as a line of strong thunderstorms that spawned tornadoes in northeast Alabama moved into Georgia.

The Weather Service issued a tornado warning at 8:16 a.m. for Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Walker and Whitfield counties, saying that radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. That warning was later expanded to include Gilmer, Gordon and Murray counties until 9:45 a.m.

Five people were killed in Alabama as the line of storms moved through, spawning several tornadoes.

"Emergency management officials reported multiple tornado touchdowns near Guntersville and Arab," the Weather Service said just before 8 a.m. "Widespread damage has been reported in Arab."

Twitter reports out of that area indicated that the campground at Guntersville State Park had been hit, with some people trapped in campers.

The Weather Service reported that an elementary school in Berry, Ala., was damaged, and tractor-trailers were overturned on I-20 west of Birmingham. The roof was blown off a large hangar at the Birmingham airport, the Weather Service said.

Although Wednesday morning's storms have passed, more are on the way later in the day. The risk of severe weather across metro Atlanta and northwest Georgia late Wednesday afternoon and into the night has increased, with forecasters now predicting a “high risk” of damaging storms in parts of the state.

The Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center early Wednesday put most of metro Atlanta in the “moderate risk” area -- up from earlier predictions of a "slight" risk -- while increasing the risk level to “high” for the northwest corner of the state, roughly northwest of a line from Cedartown to Calhoun.

The moderate risk area is now south and east of that line to a LaGrange to Peachtree City to Athens line.

Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton said that while isolated storms could arrive earlier in the day, the main line of threatening weather should reach metro Atlanta sometime after 8 p.m.

The Weather Service has posted a wind advisory for much of the state, for winds gusting to 35 mph or higher, beginning at 11 a.m. and running through 9 p.m.