A tornado touched down in Georgia Friday as the state prepared to celebrate the new year, the National Weather Service confirmed.
According to the service, the tornado touched down in Newton County while heavy storm winds hit Atlanta and North Georgia. As of Friday, the storm had been ruled a tornado, but the service said it would still be assessing the event through Saturday.
Power lines were downed, vehicles were overturned, trees uprooted and a school building was damaged when the storm blew in near the intersection of Salem Bridge and Brown Bridge around 6 p.m., said The Covington News. Nobody was inside the school at the time, said the outlet.
Submitted photos and videos show the storm and the destruction it left behind.
Newton County also shared information about the storm’s impact.
Before the storm hit Friday, eyewitnesses saw a tornado blow through Bainbridge County, according to CBS 42. Some even saw the storm tear off the roof of a local business.
“We see the rain, just regular rain. After five or ten minutes the rain stopped then came back again,” Bearcat Express owner Chirag Patel said. “Some noise comes in like a metal roof. It came and blew up two more times and I said what’s going on. Then after five minutes, it was normal.”
He said the owner of a neighboring business called him to let him know the roof was coming off.
Tweets from the National Weather Service then warned of potential tornadoes in various areas of the state throughout Dec. 31.
On Saturday, there was a risk of even more severe weather in the region.
Local residents should make sure they have a way to receive warnings about the weather, said the National Weather Service.
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