Storm sirens wail in midstate as severe weather threatens on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve thunderstorms on the heels of torrential rains that washed through the South in recent days kicked up severe weather, again drenching an already waterlogged Middle Georgia.

About 1:30 Thursday afternoon, emergency sirens wailed in parts of the midstate after the National Weather Service reported that tornado-like rotation had been detected in the clouds roughly 10 miles northwest of Roberta.

As the storm swept off to the northeast in the general direction of Bolingbroke and southern Monroe County at about 40 mph, it unleashed heavy rains and strong wind.

Areas in the weather service's warning included Jones, Crawford, Monroe and northwest Bibb counties.

There was no word of a tornado touching down.

"We dodged a bullet," said Don Graham, director of the Emergency Management Agency in Jones County, where tornado sirens sounded for 25 minutes.

Authorities there closed three roads overnight Wednesday but reopened them Thursday morning.

Graham said officials will keep an eye on the swollen Ocmulgee River through the weekend.

"But right now we're holding our own," he said.

There was no damage reported in Crawford where the tornado warning originated, according to officials there.

In Monroe County, although some trees were blown over, there were no power outages or road blockages, said Matt Perry, the county's EMA director.

There were no reports of damage in Macon, either, according to Robert McCord, operations officer for the Macon-Bibb EMA.

McCord said he was on the phone with weather service meteorologists when the tornado warning expired.

"Luckily," McCord said, "it stayed up in the clouds."

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Storm sirens wail in midstate as severe weather threatens on Christmas Eve ."