Thirteen years ago today, Chattooga County was dealing with the aftermath of a tornado the wreaked havoc in Northeast Alabama before crossing over Lookout Mountain and striking Chattooga County.
On Saturday, April 24, a cold front moved across the southeast United States as surface low pressure lifted out of the southern Plains into the Ohio valley. With the instability and shear ahead of the cold front, showers and thunderstorms developed and at 12:33 am Sunday April 25th produced an EF1 tornado with winds of 105 miles an hour. The damage spanned a 7.8-mile long and up to 300 yard wide path across Chattooga County.
The tornado touched down near the Alabama line on State Line road, or about 3 miles north northeast of Cloudland. Sporadic damage to at least 15 large trees was observed in this area across a one-half mile wide path. The tornado continued eastward, where hundreds of trees were down near Georgia Highway 157 and Gilreath Mill Road. As the tornado continued eastward, across a ridge, it appeared to strengthen with considerable damage noted along the mid to end part of the tornado path.
The tornado mid-point was estimated to be between Georgia Highway 337 and Harrisburg road. Significant damage was observed between Hemphill and Harrisburg roads, where eight homes were damaged and two garages, a carport, and several sheds were destroyed. A small grass strip airport suffered extensive damage, where one hanger was destroyed, another was heavily damaged, and two airplanes were flipped over – one an 800lb Ultralight aircraft and the other a 1500lb Cessna. Nearby, a home lost its roof, another suffered extensive shingle damage, and another shed was destroyed. Two large riding lawn mowers were moved 90 feet.
Hundreds of large, mature oak, pecan, and pine trees were down between Hemphill Road and the end point of the tornado near Center Post Road. Center Post Road was said to have been blocked from downed trees following the tornado.
Here are some reports from WZQZ’s coverage of the storm in 2010:
Late on Sunday evening the National Weather Service verified that the storm that went through DeKalb County, Alabama and Chattooga County, Georgia on Sunday morning was a F1 tornado.
The storm was one of many that blew across the South from Mississippi to Georgia over the weekend. Officials in DeKalb County, Alabama said that the storm caused damage in Geraldine, Ft. Payne and Mentone. A mobile home park in Mentone received a good bit of damage and several homes received some damage. Highway 117 coming into Chattooga County from Mentone was closed for about 9 hours on Sunday morning as Sand Mtn. Electric Co-Op workers untangled lines and cleared debris between the Mentone Church of God and Little River Bridge at Whatley’s Curve. Trooper Fuller with the Alabama State Troopers told AM 1180 on Sunday morning that there were no injuries reported in DeKalb County.
In Chattooga County the storm made a path from the stateline to Teloga and into the Centerpost area of Walker County. At 12:36 AM on Sunday morning Chattooga County EMA Director Eddie Henderson alerted AM 1180 about the approaching storms. The tornado crossed the stateline around 12:43 AM and travelled a path up Stateline Road to Gilreath Mill Road and then up Highway 157. All three roads were closed for a few hours on Sunday morning.
AM 1180 was on the scene along with Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters and Public Works Director Lamar Canada at Cloudland. The storm travelled through the Harrisburg and York Road areas of Teloga causing damage to houses and outbuildings. Also it was reported that there was some damage at the airstrip located off Harrisburg Road.
Residents in Teloga and Cloudland were without power as Georgia Power and NGEMC worked to restore service. As of late yesterday evening some residents were still without power. There were no injuries reported in Chattooga County as a result of the storm.
Chattooga County Commissioner along with Chattooga County Public Works and EMA Director Eddie Henderson had a long day on Sunday as the cleanup and damage assessment continued in Chattooga County as the result of an F1 Tornado that struck in the early hours of Sunday Morning.
Commissioner Jason Winters said that two separate crews worked from just after mid-night on Sunday and throughout the day clearing downed trees that had roads blocked. Commissioner Winters said that both of the county’s Gradealls were a valuable asset to workers in getting roads open and debris cleared from the storm.
Winters told AM 1180 late Sunday evening that clean up from the storm would take days in some of the more remote areas of the county that received damage.
Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters told AM 1180 on Monday that he plans to ask the EPD and Georgia Foresty for a postponment of the “burn ban” for residents of Chattooga County that live in the area affected by last weekend storms.
Winters said “people who live at Cloudland and Teloga are going to need to do some burning past the May 1st deadling imposed by the state.” Winters said that the extension of the burning permit for those affected by last weekend’s storms would be something that was necessary and said that he did not expect any problems from the state regarding the issue.
Chattooga County Public Works director Lamar Canada told AM 1180 on Monday evening that his crews had worked all day on Monday clearing debris from the weekend storm. Canada said that all roads in Chattooga County were now open for traffic, but that residents should continue to use caution and give workers the room they needed to work in cleaning up the mess left by the EF1 tornado that struck the county on Sunday morning.
A steady stream of on-lookers have been driving through the affected areas of Chattooga County for the past two days. This has caused some slow-down for county workers and workers with Georgia Power and NGEMC. If motorist are travelling in the area affected by the storms be sure to give workers the benefit of the doubt and use caution while travelling.
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