The National Weather Service said two tornadoes struck the metro Atlanta area amid the storms that came through Tuesday.
The strongest was an EF-1 tornado that touched down in Alpharetta, which caused damage in several areas, while an EF-0 tornado was responsible for damage on the west side of East Point. Officials via the NWS Atlanta Twitter account (@NWSAtlanta) said Tuesday afternoon that they had so far confirmed at least those two tornadoes, though their survey team’s work investigating storm-damaged areas was continuing.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik, citing NWS Atlanta meteorologists, said the stronger tornado touched down near Rucker and Harris roads.
Alpharetta police spokesman George Gordon said trees came down in the Crabapple area of north Fulton County, and that a tree had fallen on a home on Peyton Farm Drive.
Rucker Road at Harris Road was closed most of the day due to many trees and power lines down. Channel 2 reported that the road was open as of about 5 p.m.
South of there, in Roswell, Elkins and Willeo roads were also blocked for a time by downed trees.
Trees, wires down on school buses
In DeKalb County, police dispatchers reported wires down on a school bus on Flintlock Drive near Stone Mountain.
In southwest Atlanta, police dispatchers reported that a tree had fallen onto a school bus at Brownlee Road and Boulder Park Drive.
The bus driver, Jumil Walters, said there were nine students from several different schools on the bus, ranging in age from 6 to 16.
“I tried to back up, but the tree fell on top of the bus,” Walters told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I had to sit still because if I didn’t, it would pull the mirrors off the front of the bus.”
She said Atlanta firefighters responded and cut the tree off the bus, which sustained only minor damage.
“I feel a relief now that the bus is safe and the tree is off and my students are off,” said Walters, who is in her first year driving a bus.
No injuries were reported.
Falling trees cut power
Georgia Power reported that at the storms’ peak, 29,000 customers statewide were without power. By 9 a.m. Tuesday, that number had been cut to nearly 15,000 customers. Several schools were affected by power outages Tuesday morning, including Creekview High School, Creekland Middle School and Free Home Elementary School in Cherokee County and Humphries Elementary School and the KIPP Vision Academy in Atlanta.
By Tuesday afternoon, just over 3,000 residents across the state remained without power in the wake of the storms, with 1,500 of those outages located in metro Atlanta.
Better conditions ahead
The forecast for the rest of the week calls for partly cloudy conditions Wednesday and sunny skies Thursday through Saturday.
Highs will be in the upper 60s Wednesday, low 70s Thursday and mid-70s Friday and Saturday, with lows in the low to mid-50s.
—Staff photographer John Spink and staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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