Georgia storms | 15 confirmed dead

GEMA spokeswoman Crystal Paulk-Buchanan said the death toll "was fluid" as rescue and recovery efforts continued.

"The magnitude of this tragedy cannot be overstated," House Speaker David Ralston of Blue Ridge said after a statewide tour with the governor and other state officials.

But he was also confident that "just as sure as the sun came up, this state will heal."

The storms crushed the South. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said his state had confirmed 194 deaths. There also were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured — 600 in Tuscaloosa alone.

As many as 11 separate storms ripped up Georgia Wednesday and early Thursday. The killing winds were focused, however, on northwest Georgia and in middle Georgia. The Atlanta area was largely spared.

In addition to the dead, hundreds of people were hurt, tens of thousands were without electricity and hundreds of homes and businesses were wiped off the face of the Earth. Charley English, director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, said at least 300 people were in shelters because they have nowhere to live.

English also said the search and rescue operation was almost done and now Georgia will begin the "slow" process of recovery and making sure "people without a home will have a safe and sanitary place to live." He said recovery could "take years."

It's too early to know the cost, Gov. Nathan Deal said, but "I can tell you it's huge."

“It’s just hard to imagine that nature can be this devastating," the governor said at a news conference in Catoosa County earlier Thursday. "This was an unusually wide swath that was cut in this particular area here and over in Dade County.”

The governor said he’s declared a state of emergency in 13 Georgia counties. Deal said he will seek a federal declaration of emergency. Deal said he spoke with President Barack Obama Thursday.

About 37,000 houses and businesses statewide were still without power Thursday afternoon. Of that, 30,000 are in Rome, Trenton, Ringgold and Cartersville -- areas that were the hardest hit. It could be three days before power lines are repaired.

“We’re still finishing up our damage assessments,” Georgia Power Co. spokeswoman Konswello Monroe said.

Power likely will be restore to all customers in metro Atlanta by midnight, she said.

Yet there were some people who looked at the wreckage that was once their lives and were grateful.

The governor recalled a conversation he had with a man in Trenton Thursday  morning. Deal said he observed that Thursday was a terrible day but the man disagreed.  "‘My son and daughter were in that building' and he pointed to a building that had been totally eradicated. ‘It's a good day because they survived,'" the governor recalled.

Catoosa County, 100 miles north of Atlanta

Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said at a Thursday afternoon entire communities were gone.

“We ... have buildings and homes that are completely gone,” Summers said. “There are several homes that are nothing but foundations left.”

Five of the people who died in Catoosa were in homes along the same road, Cherokee Valley Road south of Ringgold.

Denia Reese, superintendent of the 17-school Catoosa system, said all the schools would be closed Friday and next week.

But, "Our Ringgold High School Tigers will graduate from Ringgold High School," said Reese.

Ringgold City Councilman Randall Franks said a lot of residents took in strangers after the storms. "We have a lot of families that are in need. Keep our community in your prayers," he said.

A hotel and row of restaurants just off I-75 in Ringgold took a direct hit from the tornado.

“You could see lightning in the air, but you couldn’t hear the thunder, that’s how loud [the tornado] was,” said Terreance Adams, the manager of the Holiday Inn Express, which sits just behind the Super 8 hotel heavily damaged by the storm.

Travelers on I-75 that stopped for shelter at hotels in Catoosa County were evacuated Wednesday night and forced to leave vehicles and belongings, Jeffrey Putnam, executive director for the NW Georgia chapter of the Red Cross, told the AJC.

Nearly 130 people, mostly travelers, were taken to Lakeview-Ft. Oglethorpe High School, where they spent the night on cots in the gym.

"At least they had a safe, dry place to sleep," Putnam said.

By Thursday evening, many of those travelers still had not been allowed to return to their vehicles, Putnam said.

The high school shelter was a busy scene Thursday evening as people wanting to help carried in grocery bags of food and cases of bottled water.

School cafeteria worked prepared breakfast and lunch and local restaurants donated dinner for those in the shelter.

"This is all about a community coming together," Putnam said.

Rabun County,120 miles north of Atlanta

A man died in his house in Rabun County when the storm raced through the area Wednesday night. According to Hall County fire Marshal Scott Cagle, who was helping Rabun County  respond to questions, said the man was the only "confirmed fatality we have at this time" and there are no people reported still missing. There is no specific cause of death but his "house was completely destroyed," Cagle said. His name has not been released.

Rescuers are still looking for the injured, however. About 50 houses were damaged and another 30 were destroyed Wednesday night and 100 Rabun County roads remained closed Thursday because of downed trees or power lines.

Meriwether County, 70 miles south of Atlanta

Strong winds caused major damage to an elementary school and destroyed numerous houses on the north and south sides of Meriwether County. Somehow, the middle of the county and the county seat of Greenville, was spared.

Downed trees closed countless roads and it'll be at least a day before the trees are removed and traffic is flowing again, said Nancy Jones, the chairwoman of the Meriwether County Commission.

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Spalding, Fayette counties, 50 miles south of Atlanta.

Two people were killed when a twister destroyed a mobile home on Fairview Road.

The tornado uprooted the over-sized double-wide trailer, tore it to pieces and scattered the wreckage in a treeline 500 feet away. Killed were resident Charlie Green, 54, and his nurse, Jamie White, 22.

Green, a plumber, required round-the-clock care due to a stroke. White , one of four nurses who attended to Green,  took the job six months ago to help support her three young children, said Sheila Scott, vice president of clinical services for Caremaster Medical Services.

Green and White were found huddled together, according to friends.

In the town of Sunny Side, the tornado erased a gas station/convenience store, heavily damaged the post office and a salvage business and cleared an RV lot of more than $1 million in inventory.

"It looked like an atomic bomb went off," said Sunnyside RV and Truck Salesco-owner Jason Miller, 34. "Everything we had is gone. We can't even find half of it. I don't know how to brace for this; I don't know what to do."

He and his partner had been in business for six months and had insurance only on the amount they owed on the vehicles.

Billy Carter, 46, lost an RV he was selling on consignment at the lot. He didn't have insurance on the RV that had been his home for a few months after his house burned down a year ago.

"As long as my family and nobody got killed, then a camper doesn't mean anything," he said. "You're born in this life with nothing, you leave with nothing and all this you're just borrowing."

Michael Powers, owner of Atlanta Lift Truck Salvage in Sunnyside, said his 10,000-square-foot building was "destroyed, gone."

"Thank God for insurance and thank God we'll be able to rebuild and come back stronger," he said. "It's gonna be all right."

In Monroe County, a little farther south, there were reports that three tractor-trailers were blown off I-75 and motorists were trapped in vehicles when a tornado hit the county at 1 a.m.

Floyd, Bartow counties, 50 miles north of Atlanta

Multiple rounds of storms also pounded Floyd County, damaging buildings on the campuses of both Berry College and Shorter University and leaving thousands without electricity.

A historic church and surrounding homes were destroyed in the Crowe Springs neighborhood near Cartersville.

There were also multiple reports Wednesday night of residents injured and trapped in homes that were destroyed when the storms swept through Bartow County around 9:30.  Several tractor-trailers were flipped over alongside I-75 north of Cartersville.

Lamar County, 60 miles south of Atlanta

The Lamar County coroner says two people are dead in Barnesville, according to authorities.

According to Ginger Storey with the Lamar County Sheriff's Office, they were Paul Gunter,73, and his wife, 63-year-old Ellen Gunter. They were in their home when they died.

Storey said the county had now moved into "cleanup mode. The National Guard has arrived to help secure some of the areas to prevent looting. We have a ton of volunteers ... offering services. The Salvation Army is on hand. It's a great show of community."

AJC staffers Nancy Badertscher, Ty Tagami, Larry Hartstein, Kristi Swartz, John Spink and Scott Peacocke contributed to this article, as did the Associated Press.