A storm system spawned tornadoes, closed I-75 in northern Georgia, and killed two people, one in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
In this image made from video and released by WSB TV in Atlanta, a tornado moves through the town of Adairsville, Ga. on Wednesday, Jan 30, 2013. A fire chief says a storm that roared across northwest Georgia has left overturned vehicles on Interstate 75 northwest of Atlanta, and crews are responding to reports of people trapped in storm-damaged residential and commercial buildings.
(AP Photo/WSB TV)
EnlargeA massive storm system raked the Southeast on Wednesday, spawning tornadoes and dangerous winds that overturned cars on a major Georgia interstate and demolished homes and businesses, killing at least two people.
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In northwest Georgia, the storm system tossed vehicles on Interstate 75 onto their roofs. The highway was closed for a time, and another main thoroughfare remained closed until crews could safely remove downed trees and power lines from the road.
WSB-TV in Atlanta aired footage showing an enormous funnel cloud bearing down on Adairsville, about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta, as the storm ripped through the city's downtown area. The system flattened homes and wiped out parts of a large manufacturing plant. Pieces of insulation hung from trees and power poles, while the local bank was missing a big chunk of its roof.
One person was killed and nine were hospitalized for minor injuries, state emergency management officials said. Residents said no traces remained of some roadside produce stands ? a common sight on rural Georgia's back roads.
One other death was reported in Tennessee after an uprooted tree fell onto a storage shed where a man had taken shelter.
In Adairsville, the strange mix of debris in one yard showed just how dangerous the storm had been: a bathtub, table, rolls of toilet paper and lumber lay in the grass next to what appears to be a roof. Sheets of metal dangled from a large tree like ornaments.
"The sky was swirling," said Theresa Chitwood, who owns the Adairsville Travel Plaza. She said she went outside to move her car because she thought it was going to hail. Instead, the passing storm decimated a building behind the travel plaza.
"It sounded like a freight train coming through," she said. "It looks like a bomb hit it."
Adairsville is a small town in the Oothcalooga Valley, with a historic district lined with trees and a mix of pre-Civil War and Victorian homes. It proclaims itself the first Georgia town to be listed in its entirety on the National Register of Historic Places and looks to draw tourists with its antique shops.
Powerful winds ripped through the entire region, with gusts powerful enough to topple tractor-trailers in several places.
In Adairsville, several were flipped on their side in the parking lot of a gas station and restaurant. Danny Odum, a trucker from Marion, Ill., had stopped for breakfast when the suspected tornado hit. After it passed, Odum said he went outside to find his truck that was hauling diapers on its side with his dog Simon, a Boston terrier, still inside. Simon was scared but otherwise fine.
Bartow County fire chief Craig Millsap said there were reports that two storm warning sirens may have failed, but he said the failed sirens were not in the hardest-hit area.
Access to the area was being restricted, and there was a report of a gas leak in the area, officials said. A shelter was being established at a community recreation center ? temperatures were expected to plummet to the 30s and 40s overnight.
Conditions remained ripe for tornadoes into Wednesday afternoon, and authorities were still investigating several sites to determine if damage was caused by twisters. Since Tuesday, the system had caused damage across a swath from Missouri to Georgia.
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