Georgia Storms: 2 Likely Tornadoes Touched Down

ATLANTA, GA — Tornadoes appear to have touched down overnight in two spots around metro Atlanta as a severe storm front rolled through the area. Tuesday morning, National Weather Service crews were on their way to examine those areas and confirm they were, in fact, tornadoes.

Meanwhile, thousands of Georgians, most of them in metro Atlanta and west Georgia, remained without power Tuesday morning after the storms pummeled the region, knocking down trees and downing power lines.

The tornado hot-spots in question were in south Fulton County and in Haralson County, west of Atlanta along Interstate 20 near the Alabama state line.

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"Those two are pretty high up on the confidence level that that's what they're going to find," said Matt Sena, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

In the overnight hours, a strong thunderstorms rolled into metro Atlanta from the west, bringing heavy rain, lightning and strong winds. Trees were reported down throughout the region, Sena said, and large hail was reported in south Fulton and some other areas.

Through the night, flash flood warnings and tornado watches were issued throughout the region.

In Atlanta, a large metal structure was knocked down into the roadway at 14th Street and West Peachtree in Midtown. Debris had Clairmont Road, between Lavista Road and North Druid Hills Road, shut down in DeKalb County and downed trees and power lines blocked lanes of South Fulton Parkway.

Georgia Power said it was getting numerous reports of downed trees and power lines in the hardest hit areas. About 6,500 Georgia Power customers still were without power Tuesday morning, along with about 7,400 customers of other Georgia electricity providers, according to outage maps.

School was canceled in Haralson County, with the sheriff's office there saying there were too many downed trees and power lines for students to get to school safely.

By Tuesday morning, the storms had passed, with only a few isolated thunderstorms being reported in central Georgia. A dense fog advisory for metro Atlanta was in effect until 10 a.m.

On Monday, isolated to scattered thunderstorms began developing Monday afternoon south of I-20. Then, in the late afternoon and early evening, a more organized line of severe thunderstorms moved from Alabama into northwest and west-central Georgia before rolling into metro Atlanta.