Tornadoes packing winds of above 110 miles an hour destroyed buildings and snapped hundreds of trees across south Macon early Sunday, crumbling brick walls and decimating homes and landmarks.
Western Bibb County also was hit hard. A damage estimate wasn't available, but it will be significant. The cleanup will take weeks.
The storms that hit Macon just before 6 a.m. raged across the midstate, walloping trees and knocking out power across much of Middle Georgia. One person was killed and several more were injured in Laurens County, one critically, on a Mother's Day weekend in which more than 20 people were killed by storms in Oklahoma and Missouri.
By Sunday afternoon, six Georgia counties had been declared disaster areas, including three in the midstate: Bibb, Laurens and Johnson counties. A state of emergency was declared in Macon, and a curfew was put into effect overnight in Bibb County for the first time since the flood of 1994.
To meet the demand for assistance, the local chapter of the American Red Cross will receive help from across Georgia today.
During an 11 a.m. conference call, local disaster specialists will discuss opening a relief headquarters to assist victims file for aid, said Sandra Stone, who is helping coordinate disaster response for the local chapter.
Additional volunteers will be coming in today, Stone said.
The tornado — classified an EF2, with winds between 110 and 132 mph — was thought to be the worst to hit Macon since 1954, emergency management authorities said.
A little more than 24 hours after tornadoes shredded parts of the midstate, the communities most affected report few problems overnight.
While power outages are prevalent, representatives of the Macon Police Department, Wrightsville Fire Department and sheriff's offices in Bibb, Laurens and Johnson counties report no major incidents this morning.
While Macon police have received some reports of looting, Sgt. Melanie Hofmann said there were no major incidents.
"We've heard of people walking in the street carrying things but it was minimal stuff," Hofmann said.
Gov. Sonny Perdue, who already planned to be in Bibb County for two other events today, probably will survey the damage during his visit. President Bush spoke to Perdue and governors in other states Sunday, promising federal assistance and his personal prayers, the White House said.
Emergency officials and other relevant city and county officials planned to huddle again at 7 a.m. today to continue assessing the damage and move forward. Public works and power crews worked through the night, and police patrols were beefed up to protect the worst-hit areas, where crumpled walls and roofs left homes and businesses vulnerable.
A shelter was opened at Freedom Park for those whose homes were damaged, and several people started arriving around dark.
Despite the storm, Macon's official rain gauge at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport registered little rain — just a third of an inch. Rain was heavier in north Macon, though, where radar images put it between 1 and 2 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
It was the wind that snapped trees and roared as residents huddled in basements and bathrooms across the midstate. Power was out in parts of numerous Middle Georgia counties for at least some time Sunday, and in some cases well into the night.
Georgia Power is reporting 37,000 people are still without power this morning and many will remain in the dark until at least Tuesday because crews must clear debris before making repairs, said Spokeswoman Theresa Robinson. She said as many as 200 power poles are down or broken and will have to be reset.
Although the bulk of customers still without power are located in Bloomfield, Robinson said the outages remain widespread.
Bibb County school officials will meet at 3 p.m. today to determine whether to resume school on Tuesday and where to relocate some, Diana Rodgers, Bibb's deputy superintendent for teaching and learning said today.
An early Sunday tornado ripped part of the gym roof off at Westside High School, as well as left about 2 inches of standing water inside the building. The storm also hurled classroom trailers around the school campus, school officials said early today.
West Bibb, south Macon, Laurens bear brunt of damage
The worst damage appeared to be in west Bibb, south Macon and Laurens County just north of Dublin, but there were scattered reports of flattened buildings in Crawford and Twiggs counties, too.
South Macon was particularly hammered by the storm, and the weather service confirmed that a tornado touched down there before dawn. Four buildings sustained major structural damage at Macon State College, and more than 100 trees snapped on the Macon campus, which is closed today.
The Olympia Family Fun Center on Mercer University Drive was leveled. A wall collapsed at Carol's Linens off Eisenhower Parkway. Macon Mall sustained damage and was closed Sunday. One of the Goodwill Emporiums lost part of its roof, and the charity was calling for donations Sunday evening.
People wandered south Macon streets as the sun came up Sunday, awestruck by smashed homes, dozens of broken trees and power lines dangling in the road. Some poorer neighborhoods were among the hardest hits, and several renters told The Telegraph they had no insurance.
"It’s a catastrophe," said Robert Williams, who lives off Rocky Creek Road in Bloomfield. "A lot of folks ain’t got no money to cut trees and rebuild homes."
Lightning from the storm was fantastic. Winds peeled trees "like bananas," south Maconite Sheree Barkley said. Churches canceled Mother's Day services. Several restaurants and businesses were closed all across the city because the power was out, and open gas stations and fast-food joints with power in the city had long lines.
Western Bibb County also was hit hard. National Weather Service forecasters said they believed the same tornadic system cut a swath from near Lizella into south Macon. Water's Edge, a subdivision on the west side of Lake Tobesofkee, and houses along Columbus Road were badly damaged.
One house in the Heath Place subdivision lost its roof but, amazingly, none of the contents inside moved. All three county parks at the lake sustained heavy damage, two county vehicles were mangled by trees, and the county's patrol boathouse was smashed, park Director Doug Furney said.
Overnight campers at the lake took shelter in concrete-block bathhouses as the storms damaged campers and motor homes. It took hours to cut through the downed trees so campers could leave, Furney said.
A trailer was knocked over at Westside High School, and a huge air-conditioning unit was ripped off the roof. Rice Elementary and Southwest High School also sustained damage, and Bibb County schools are closed today. School officials said they are concerned about approaching mandatory state tests and the likelihood that alternative testing sites will have to be used.
Problems with loss of power, cable, phone service widespread
Power was restored to all Flint Energies EMC customers by early morning, said Senior Vice President Jimmy Autry.
"We finished everything up last night," Autry said.
He said about 100 customers, mostly in Crawford County, reported new outages this morning due to overnight wind.
Autry said power should be restored to the remaining customers by noon.
While thousands of Georgia Power customers were still without power this morning, most Tri-County EMC customers in Jones and Bibb counties were back online Sunday evening. Flint Energies reported about 1,500 customers still down Sunday night, with full restoration expected by about 5 p.m. today. Most of those outages were in Crawford and Peach counties.
Water pressure dropped across Bibb County for much of the day because a power outage at the Macon Water Authority's treatment plant caused a problem with circuit breakers even after the plant generator system came on. The pressure was stabilized by late Sunday afternoon, Executive Director Tony Rojas said.
At one point telephone service was out for about 70,000 customers in the Macon area. Cox Communications said 40,000 customers lost cable service. Nextel Cellular service was out much of the day, causing problems for city officials, many of whom used their personal cell phones when their city Nextel phones wouldn't work.
City officials were working out of Emergency Management Agency headquarters at City Hall, and the Bibb County Sheriff's Office set up a command post at Lake Tobesofkee. Mayor Robert Reichert went on television, imploring people to stay home. He promised that officers would enforce the curfew overnight, but they would allow those who needed to travel for business to move about the city.
There were handful of reports of lootings from businesses during the day, according to the police department.
Telegraph staff writers Travis Fain, Liz Fabian, Harold Goodridge, Charles Richardson, Joe Kovac Jr., Oby Brown, Andy Drury, Jennifer Burk and Grant Blankenship contributed to this report.
