Deadly storms leave wide swath of damage in Georgia; Disaster Relief teams surveying damage

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GRIFFIN, Ga. — A giant, swirling storm system left at least seven people dead across the South and spurred suspected tornadoes in Georgia, causing sporadic damage to homes and businesses, uprooting trees, and knocking out electricity across a wide swath of the state on Thursday. 

Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief crews were surveying damage as soon as the dangerous weather had passed, preparing to send in chainsaw teams and other volunteers to help with cleanup if needed.

Media reports showed roofs blown off homes and walls toppled on box stores.

A passenger died when a tree fell on a vehicle in Jackson, Ga., during the storm, Butts County Coroner Lacey Prue said. In the same county southeast of Atlanta, the storm appeared to have knocked a freight train off its tracks, officials said.

Across the stateline in Alabama, at least six fatalities were confirmed and officials estimate that 40 to 50 homes were damaged or destroyed by storms that cut a strip across Autauga County, said Ernie Baggett, the county’s emergency management director. He said crews were focused Thursday evening on cutting through downed trees to look for people who may be injured.

In Selma, brick buildings collapsed, cars were on their side and traffic poles were strewn about in the downtown area. Plumes of thick, black smoke rose over the city from a fire burning. It was not immediately known whether the storm caused the blaze.

The “large and extremely dangerous tornado” caused damage as it moved through the historic city, the National Weather Service said. There were confirmed reports of tree and structural damage in Selma and reports of damage in other counties, the agency said.

Nationwide, there were 33 separate tornado reports Thursday from the National Weather Service as of Thursday evening. However, the reports were not yet confirmed and some of them could later be classified as wind damage after assessments are done in coming days.

Malesha McVay drove parallel to the tornado that got less than a mile from her home before suddenly turning.

“We stopped and we prayed," she said. “It was a 100% God thing that it turned right before it hit my house.”

She took video of the giant twister, which would turn black as it swept away home after home.

“It would hit a house, and black smoke would swirl up,” she said. “It was very terrifying.”

There were multiple tornado warnings issued Thursday in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee as the storm system moved through the region.

In Georgia, more than 100,000 customers were without electricity just before sunset Thursday as the storm system carved a path across a tier of counties just south of Atlanta, according to PowerOutage.us.

The storm hit in Griffin, south of Atlanta, where a Hobby Lobby store partially lost its roof, and at least one car was flipped in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart.

Damage was also reported west of downtown Atlanta in Douglas County and Cobb County, with Cobb County government posting a damage report showing a crumbled cinder block wall at a warehouse in suburban Austell.

In Kentucky, the National Weather Service in Louisville confirmed that an EF-1 tornado struck Mercer County and said crews were surveying damage in a handful of other counties. There were reports of downed trees, power outages and other scattered damage from storms that moved through the state.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.