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closeThree tornadoes touched down in Hancock County late Friday, destroying at least eight homes and seriously injuring one resident, authorities said.
Robert Beasley, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, said two EF-0 tornadoes touched down in the eastern portion of the county about 10:30 p.m.
About an hour later, an EF-3 grounded in the area, he said.
The twisters, settling between Sparta and Culverton, destroyed several houses in the Young Blood community east of Ga. 16, said Leroy Wiley, county emergency services director.
“They were gutted by the force of the wind, tops lifted, homes destroyed,” he said. “People were in their houses when the tornadoes struck. They left their homes because the wind force or whatever took the tops off the houses.”
Wiley said one resident attempting to leave a shattered home fell and suffered a pelvic injury and had to be rushed by ambulance to a local hospital.
Jesse Ethredge, a Putnam County resident, spent much of Saturday surveying the damage and helping residents.
“One trailer was separated from the frame, two others were picked up off the foundations and knocked back down,” he said, describing homes he visited on Ga. 22.
Ethredge said he heard of one farm animal that was killed in the storms. Wiley could not confirm the incident.
The tornadoes were the second batch of harsh storms to touch down in central Hancock County in two months.
In February, Johnny Frank Baker, 60, was killed when his mobile home was shredded in a twister that destroyed the Hickory Grove Missionary Baptist Church across the street from his mobile home.
His daughter and two young grandchildren also were injured when the EF-3 tornado hit with winds of 140 miles per hour.
“We haven’t had tornadoes in Hancock in previous years,” Beasley said. “It’s just the luck of the draw.”
Wiley said Red Cross and Georgia Emergency Management Agency workers were on the scene Saturday providing assistance to displaced families.
Information from The Telegraph’s archives was used in this report.
To contact writer Ashley Tusan Joyner, call 744-4347.
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