The weather this week will be nothing like Saturday morning’s storms, which produced a tornado in Cherokee County.
Though rain is in the forecast Monday afternoon and evening, there is no expectation of severe weather, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz said.
It is expected to be cloudy Monday, with a high of 56 degrees, and the rain should stop overnight Monday.
“We should quickly clear out for Tuesday with mostly sunny skies,” he said.
But Saturday morning was a different story. The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-0 tornado in Cherokee County, near Waleska. The twister had winds of 80 miles per hour and struck about 7:30 a.m., said Matthew Sena, of the Weather Service. Preliminary reports show the tornado was about three miles long and 10 yards wide.
“It was not on a continuous path, but there was sporadic damage as it bounced around,” Sena said of the tornado.
Sena said it was straight-line winds that caused two girls to become trapped in a Cherokee County mobile home near Acworth, seriously injuring one of them.
Just before 8 a.m., Cherokee County firefighters responded to the Poplar Valley Mobile Home Park off Ga. 92 west of Woodstock, where a fallen tree had trapped two girls inside the bedroom of a trailer, according to Cherokee fire spokesman Tim Cavender.
Firefighters quickly rescued a 2-year-old girl, and she was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital for treatment of minor abrasions, Cavender said.
A 14-year-old girl was lying on a bed “when the tree fell through the roof and landed across her lower back, preventing her from escaping,” according to Cavender.
Cavender said the tree “had gone through the roof and the flooring of the mobile home.”
Firefighters used an air bag to lift the tree off the girl and pull her to safety, Cavender said.
The teen, identified as Karina Melendrez, was taken to a hospital for treatment and has since been released, Channel 2 reported.
“I was just glad that nothing happened to me and I was still going to be able to walk,” she told the TV station.
The northern suburbs of metro Atlanta were under severe weather alerts Saturday morning as the storms moved into the state ahead of a cold front.
Tornado warnings were posted for Bartow, Cherokee, Pickens, Lumpkin and Dawson counties between 7 and 8 a.m. as radar indicated a possible tornado or the potential for one.
The tornado warnings had expired by 9 a.m, but severe thunderstorm warnings remained in effect for a wide swath of the state from South Carolina southwestward through metro Atlanta to Alabama. A second line of strong storms was moving into the northwestern suburbs at 9:15.
A large area of the state southeast of Atlanta was under a tornado watch until 3 p.m. Saturday. The watch had been dropped for the immediate metro area by noon as the storms moved out, but remained in effect for 13 middle Georgia counties.
The severe weather continued into the afternoon in middle Georgia, where the Weather Service reported that possible tornadoes downed trees and utility lines in Irwinton and Sandersville between noon and 1 p.m.
A flash flood warning posted at 9:30 a.m. for Fulton and DeKalb counties was in effect until 3:15 p.m.
Emergency officials in Milton reported numerous trees downed by the storms, while in south Fulton County, Buffington Road was blocked by a downed tree late Saturday morning.
Trees were also reported down in Floyd, Coweta, Polk and Hall counties, as well as in Barrow County, where a wind gust of 64 mph was recorded. Hail an inch in diameter fell in Bartow County, according to the National Weather Service.
In Cedartown, minor roof damage was reported at Polk Medical Center, as well as minor flooding of the hospital’s basement, but all patients were okay, according to the Weather Service. Six cars and a nearby home were damaged by debris from the hospital’s roof.
In Atlanta, police dispatchers reported a tree down on the Westview Drive bridge over Langhorn Street west of downtown, while in Dunwoody, police reported that Cotillion Drive near North Shallowford Road was closed by deep standing water just before 9:30 a.m.
The winds also brought down utility lines. Georgia Power reported more than 18,000 outages scattered metro-wide at the height of the morning storms.
The storms also caused delays for flights at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
While the rain has moved out for now, it will be back Monday, with an 80 percent chance of showers, Nitz said. Highs will remain in the mid-50s before dropping into the 40s Wednesday.
—Angel K. Brooks contributed to this report.
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