Several Georgia communities were cleaning up Friday after a line of severe thunderstorms swept across metro Atlanta before daybreak, and tornadoes may have touched down to the south.
The National Weather Service reported a possible tornado had destroyed a house and falling trees damaged others in Laurens County and another possible tornado in Johnson County damaged numerous buildings. Large doors were ripped off the Piney Mount Volunteer Fire Department’s station near Wrightsville.
Storms had knocked out electricity to about 15,000 Georgia Power Customers, but most power was restored by mid-afternoon.
Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta recorded a wind gust of 58 mph just before 5 a.m., and those high winds brought down numerous trees in Cobb County.
A huge pine was uprooted and came crashing down on Amy Marsaudon’s home in a neighborhood off Terrell Mill Road. She told Channel 2 Action News that her family was awakened by a “ton of wind — branches were falling and we heard some rain. All of a sudden, kaboom, and a branch came through the ceiling, scared us half to death.”
Not far from there, a child was injured when one of several trees that fell near Oak Knoll and Crossgate drives crashed through a home’s roof, according to the Weather Service.
The weather also hampered efforts to clear a tractor-trailer crash that jammed traffic on I-285 and I-20 on the west side.
The truck, which was hauling copper wire, overturned about 3:30 a.m. on I-285 northbound just north of I-20, slamming into the median wall and knocking concrete into the southbound lanes.
Only one lane in each direction was open until about 5:45 a.m., when the southbound lanes were cleared. All but one northbound lane remained closed until nearly 6:30, when those lanes were opened. Eastbound traffic on I-20 trying to take the ramp onto I-285 northbound also backed up.
Rainfall totals through 7 a.m. were .65 inch at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport; .83 inch in Alpharetta, .92 inch in Peachtree City, 1.01 inches in Johns Creek and 1.16 inches in Jonesboro.
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