The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that the storms that pummeled North Georgia the day before contained three tornadoes – the strongest of them up to a half-mile wide as it plowed 15 miles through Gordon County.
At least seven people, most of them in the Rome area, suffered minor injuries in the storms. Damage was scattered across northwest Georgia, but in a few spots the destruction was nearly complete.
In Floyd County, a storage building at Shorter University and a shopping center on Shorter Avenue were heavily damaged. In Gordon County, a family's home was blown off its foundation while a couple and their toddler son huddled in a bathroom.
The Weather Service reported that the storms also downed trees in Fulton, Fayette, Henry, Polk, Haralson, Bartow, Douglas, Gilmer, Troup, Coweta and Meriwether counties.
The most powerful tornado touched down at 5:25 p.m. Thursday on the far northeast corner of Floyd County near Ga. 140 about 2.7 miles north of Shannon, according to meteorologist Mike Leary of the Weather Service office in Peachtree City.
The storm started out as a relatively weak EF0 tornado, with gusts of up to 85 mph. The EF or Enhanced Fujita scale ranks tornadoes on a 0 to 5 scale, with 5 being the most destructive storm.
The tornado strengthened to an EF1 with gusts as much as 110 mph just east of Plainville and crossed into Gordon County. “Several homes were damaged from falling trees,” Leary said.
Then the tornado passed south of Calhoun and spun up to an EF3, with gusts of up to 165 mph, as it crossed Boone Ford and Beason roads east of Calhoun.
That’s where it slammed into and destroyed the house of Davison and Ashley Sheriff. The couple and their 1-year-old son escaped serious injury as their home blew up around them.
"The pressure, from the tornado, I guess, made my ears pop, so I told everybody to get in the bathroom," Davison Sheriff told Channel 2 Action News. He said he pulled his pregnant wife and son close "and held them tight. We never did let go of each other."
"The house started shaking and then we started moving, and I said, ‘Here we go,'" Davison Sheriff said.
The storm tossed the three about 50 feet into the yard, according to Channel 2.
"He bear-hugged us and we rolled through the yard and we still were all holding each other," said Ashley Sheriff. "He definitely saved our lives, him and God, that's for sure."
"It shows you that you are not guaranteed tomorrow," she told the station.
A short time later, the twister lost strength and dissipated.
Earlier, another twister had touched down at 4:55 p.m. west of Rome in Floyd County, Leary said. The twister was on the ground for about eight miles, causing minor injuries to three people and damaging about 20 homes, Leary said.
The tornado started as an EF1 storm but grew to an EF2, with gusts up to 135 mph, as it approached the community of Walton Creek.
“The damage continued for approximately a mile and a half as it crossed Highway 20,” Leary said. “It looks like the tornado eventually lifted and dissipated just west of Highway 53 north of Jones Bend Road.”
The funnel was about 200 yards wide, Leary said.
The third twister, a short-lived tornado, touched down at 6:44 p.m. south of metro Atlanta, near Polk Road between Grantville and Moreland in Coweta County, Leary said.
That tornado was on the ground for just over a mile, snapping dozens of trees as the twister moved toward Dingler Road. “One home near Polk Road had most of its roof removed, and several trees on the property were uprooted and snapped,” Leary said.
The Weather Service ranked the storm as an EF1.
Weather Service teams were in the field Friday confirming the tornado sightings. That night, Leary said it was unlikely any additional twisters would be confirmed.
More than 20,000 Georgia Power customers lost electricity during the storms. About 2,200 of them – all but 200 in the Rome area -- were still without power as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to utility spokeswoman Carol Boatright.
Fewer than 100 customers in metro Atlanta were without electricity, Boatright said, “and most of it is not even related to the storm last night. We’re pretty much cleaned up in the metro area.”
“We should have everyone restored by about midnight tonight,” she said.
Heavy rain from the storms prompted the National Weather Service to post flood warnings for Big Creek in north Fulton and Forsyth counties, and for the Conasauga River and Lookout Creek in the northwest corner of the state.
Rainfall totals across metro Atlanta were generally between 1 and 2 inches.
The storms moved out of metro Atlanta and skies began clearing by late Thursday night.
The Channel 2 forecast calls for mostly sunny skies Christmas Eve Saturday, with a low of 40 rising to a high of 59 during the day.
Christmas Day Sunday is predicted to be mostly cloudy with scattered showers, with a low in the mid 40s and a high in the mid 50s. The chance of rain will be 40 percent.
Seasonable temperatures are expected to continue Monday under partly sunny skies.
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