Monday, Mar. 6, 2023–9:27 a.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The Floyd County Emergency Manage Agency continues to survey the damage caused by a brief but strong storm on Friday. Damage from the storm was pretty much countywide, according to Floyd County EMA Director Tim Herrington. Trees and power lines were blown down, road were clocked by debris, and a few homes had trees come down on them.

“We did get a call from the National Weather Service saying that they did detect some rotation out toward Martha Berry Highway between Berry College and the airport,” Harrington said. “There was also a report of rotation up toward the Shannon area, but we don’t think that anything touched down.”

There were multiple trees down on the Berry College campus. Luckily, the eagle’s nest was spared. Toward the Shannon area, an awning at Model Elementary School was blown from the building. There were no injuries reported.

Herrington added that he is trying to coordinate with the National Weather Service to get a survey team here to take a look at the damage to determine if it was caused by a brief tornado or straight-line winds.

According to Herrington, when he started getting weather reports on Friday before the storm hit, he was fearful it was going to be pretty bad.

“The storm was very fast moving, which concerned me a lot,” Herrington said. “They said it was moving anywhere from 50 to 60 miles per hour, which told me there was a lot of wind involved in that storm. We were expecting a lot of damage from the wind gusts. According to some of the information we have gotten, the wind gusts were got here in Floyd County were probably some of the highest in the state.”

At the height of the storm, about 12,000 Georgia Power Customers were left without power. Some went more than 30 hours without electricity and more than 50 hours without internet service.

Herrington was a guest on Monday’s First News with Tony McIntosh. You can hear the full interview below.