Heavy rains collapse warehouse roof, take down trees and powerlines across metro

ATLANTA — Tuesday’s storms caused trees and powerlines to fall across metro Atlanta, and the heavy rain led to flooding in parts as well.

The weight from the heavy rain caused a warehouse roof to collapse.

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach went to the scene in South Fulton where a sign outside the warehouse along Fulton Industrial Boulevard said the company had relocated and appeared to be empty.

Regardless, when he arrived at the warehouse, he found that several doors had been blown out, and pieces of concrete and roofing were lying in the parking lot.

It appears all the rainwater wasn’t draining on the roof of the warehouse and collected till it collapsed.

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George Monagan lives across the street and said he heard the sirens as emergency crews arrived at the scene.

“I got up and looked to see what was going on and that’s when I saw it. Didn’t realize any of that till I came out and saw it,” Monagan said.

Gehlbach got up close to the warehouse and said you can now see straight up to the sky through where the roof used to be on the warehouse.

Monagan said it looked like an explosion happened at the warehouse.

“(The) doors puffed out and all (the) debris (was) out here in the parking lot,” he told Gehlbach.

The immediate rush of flood water pushed out the warehouse doors. Thankfully it looked like the building was empty, so no one was inside, and no one was hurt.

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Meanwhile, road and utility crews across the metro worked to clear storm damage that included fallen trees and power lines.

The storm toppled trees onto roads in Sandy Springs.

Robin Cochran told Channel 2′s Tom Regan that she was still stunned when saw that a towering tree came crashing down onto the street in from of her driveway.

“Did you hear it?” Regan asked Cochran.

“I did,” Cochran said.

“How loud was it?” Regan asked.

“Very loud,” Cochran said.

The fallen tree also took down power lines and snapped a power pole in half just down the street.

“The whole streets out,” Cochran said.

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Heavy rains and gusting winds, also downed trees and power lines here on Northside Drive near Winterthur Road, just north of Interstate 285.

Utility crews blocked the road while they began the process of clearing the trees and repairing the lines. They said the process would likely take hours.

Cochran told Regan that it’s unfortunate that she lost her tree that’s been there for decades, but the good news is, it didn’t fall onto her home.

“Were you worried that something like this was going to happen sooner or later?” Regan asked Cochran.

“Yes, at some point,” Cochran said.

Sandy Springs officials also reported flooding on Spalding Drive near Pitts Road and were advising drivers to use caution if they were in the area.

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