The National Weather Service has determined that the tornadoes from Wednesday nights supercell thunderstorms that killed two in Lamar County and Spalding County were both rated as an EF-3 with winds of 140 miles per hour.
The fast moving supercells had moved into Georgia from Alabama and were traveling at a speed of 65 miles per hour. Moving so quickly, there was very little time for a warning although most had been aware of the potential for dangerous weather after following the death and destruction experienced in Mississippi and Alabama earlier.
The killer tornados formed around midnight making them even more dangerous to sleeping residents whose first warning was the roar of the wind at their door.
Near Hollonville in Pike County a tornado formed and headed northeast into the Sunnyside area just north of Griffin were Charlie Green, 54, of Griffin, and Jamie White of Thomaston were killed. The storm was on the ground for a distance of 20 miles.
Moments after the first tornado touched down, a second twister dropped to the ground between Manchester and Warm Springs in Meriwether County damaging a school, a motel, a nursing home, several homes and 2 mobile home parks before crossing the Flint River into Upson County.
On Weems Road, one structure was completely destroyed and several others were damaged, utility poles were snapped like twigs and lines were down, the ragged spikes left as the trees broke about 15 feet above the ground clearly showed the path of the twister.
Upson County was lucky, the storm intensified as it moved to the east.
In Lamar County the destruction was total, the county is still in the process of determining how many homes are no longer habitable and how many were injured. Paul and Ellen Guntter of Grove Street were killed, three other family members were hospitalized.
Amazing stories of survival were around every corner, Frank Foster’s wife Sallie was helping care for an elderly friend leaving Frank home alone with their small dog. Just before 10 pm, Frank went to bed, he had seen the news from Alabama but thought that it was too far away to impact his life.
At 12:30 am, Frank was awakened by the sound of debris hitting the roof, a second later the roof was no longer there. His bedroom was located in the right front corner of the house, it’s the only part that remained standing.
Frank picked up their small dog, raised a window and stepped out onto his front porch. Amid all the devastation, his first thought was to call and make sure Sallie was alright. She answered the phone and thought Frank was just kidding when he said the house was gone.
When the sun rose Thursday morning, Frank was just thankful he was there to pick up the pieces.
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