Experts confirmed Thursday that a small tornado blew trees down onto houses in a Cherokee County neighborhood during the height of Wednesday afternoon’s severe storms.
The National Weather Service said late Thursday morning that a survey by the director of the Cherokee County Emergency Management Agency determined that a small tornado with wind speeds estimated at 75 mph “snapped trees which fell on homes” in the Bradshaw Farm subdivision about four miles east-southeast of Holly Springs.
Three homes sustained major damage from the tornado, which had a path up to 75 yards wide and was on the ground for ¾ mile. Another 10 homes had minor damage from the tornado, which also destroyed three cars and three outbuildings.
Jim Stephens said he was working in his upstairs office at his home on Woodside Park Drive around 3:30 p.m. when “I noticed it got very dark.”
Stephens told the AJC that he went downstairs to his front door just as the wind "started blowing terrible.”
He said leaves and rain were making “circular motions in the street like there was some type of rotation going on. The storm came from the west, but the wind all blew from the east.”
Logan Washburn, 8, told WSB Radio’s Pete Combs that he was in a basement bathroom when “a huge tornado blew in and it knocked over one of my friend’s trees and my tree got knocked over and broke a fence.”
“It was very scary,” Washburn said. “I was just doing my homework and [the storm] blew in.”
Will Lummus was at work when the tornado ripped through his neighborhood. He said his wife called him, and “said that the trees had fallen on a couple of neighbor’s houses, the power was out and I needed to get home as soon as I could.”
He said his main concern was whether there were any injuries.
“I know what tornadoes can do, and I was like, anything with trees coming down on houses can not be good,” Lummus told WSB Radio.
Cherokee fire spokesman Tim Cavender said the only injury was to a man who fell and busted his lip “after the fact.”
“Fortunately, that’s been the only injury that we’ve had,” Cavender said. “Houses can be replaced and the damage can be repaired.”
Lummus, whose home escaped damage, said that his neighborhood would pull together to help residents whose homes were damaged.
“We will all pitch in and help one another and get everything cleaned up, and once we get all the mess cleaned up, we’ll help everybody get their houses back in order,” Lummus said. “Whoever needs a place to stay, we’ll open up our houses to them.”
Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.
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