A violent tornado blasting winds up to 200km/h wreaked havoc through downtown Atlanta, Georgia, toppling trees on to homes, blowing windows out of high-rises and injuring 30 people, city officials said Saturday.
A second tornado in north-west Georgia killed two people and injured others on Saturday, officials said. One person died in Polk county and a second in Floyd county. Both counties are on Georgia’s border with Alabama.
The first tornado, which struck at about 9.40pm local time on Friday, ripped roofs off downtown apartment buildings and sent people fleeing from their seats in the middle of a university basketball tournament as debris fell from the ceiling.
About 30 000 homes lost power due to that tornado, said John Sell of Georgia Power. ”We have a lot of broken poles,” he said.
By midday on Saturday, 10 000 homes remained without electricity, and new storms in the state’s north-west sector were causing more damage.
Verona Murrell of the National Weather Service in Atlanta said meteorologists had confirmed the damage was caused by a rare inner-city tornado measuring EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with EF5 the most intense twisters.
The Atlanta fire department said 30 people were sent to hospitals for treatment, but there were no deaths or serious injuries reported.
CNN showed images of homes crushed by huge trees, huge concrete flame pillars toppled in the city’s Centennial Olympic Park, and office towers — including CNN’s own headquarters — with scores of windows blown out.
At the Georgia Dome, where the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament was under way, McClatchy newspapers sportswriter Jim Mashek said a silver washer fell from the ceiling to about 30cm from his hand.
”There was a huge crowd on hand, and when the tornado arrived, a rumbling, trembling noise dominated the Georgia Dome. The roof was shaking,” he said.
The National Weather Service, meanwhile, warned of more severe weather on the way for the region including Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.
”The NWS Storm Prediction Centre … is forecasting the development of tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds over parts of the south-east US today,” it said early on Saturday.
Search-and-rescue teams continued to comb damaged buildings in downtown Atlanta for possibly injured people, but said they had not found anyone caught in the wreckage.
”On behalf of the city council, I want to say we are thankful that we have had no reports of lives lost to this storm,” Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin said in a statement on the city website.
Earlier, the city had called on people to stay out of the downtown area while emergency services assessed the damages. ”It is imperative that people stay out of the area and let public safety personnel evacuate people and make the area safe,” Franklin said. — AFP
