Officials: Storms caused 3 tornadoes in north Georgia

David Sheriff returned home from the hospital Friday morning and surveyed what was left of his house for the first time in daylight.

"I just don't see how we survived, but I guess the man upstairs helped us out a lot on that," said Sheriff.

 Sheriff, his pregnant wife, son and aunt were inside their Beason Road home in Gordon County Thursday night when violent storms hit north Georgia. The National Weather Service also confirmed tornadoes in Coweta and Floyd counties. 

Sheriff said he realized they were in danger almost immediately.

"I heard the tornado coming and the pressure in the house change," Sheriff told Channel 2's Richard Elliot.  "My ears popped, and I never felt that before. I've always heard that when the air pressure starts changing, it means a tornado or something bad is coming."

Sheriff said he gathered up all his family and put them inside an interior closet.  Then, he wrapped his arms around all over them and clutched them in a mighty bear hug as the house desintergrated around them.  Sheriff said they all rolled through the swirling debris out into the yard.

 "It was just gone after that," said Sheriff.  "I mean, the next thing we knew, we were out in the yard."

He and his family went to the hospital to be checked out.  Sheriff said he had to have a head wound stapled shut from where a drier hit him, but otherwise he is fine.  Doctors said his pregnant wife is fine too.  His aunt suffered an injured foot. 

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Even with the minor injures and the destroyed home just two days before Christmas, Sheriff considers them all very lucky.

 "Just banged up," he said.  "I'm sore.  It was a ride."

The National Weather Service said an EF-3 tornado touched down in Gordon County, an EF-1 tornado struck Coweta County near Grantville and an EF-2 tornado hit Floyd County.

In Rome, Tori Davis told Channel 2's Carl Willis that she went to check on her daughter and found a tree had smashed through the roof of her home.

"She was right there in the center of the couch in the middle of the sectional when this all collapsed," Davis said showing Willis the damage.

 

Scottt Hancock, the Floyd County Emergency Management director and the NWS spent Friday afternoon viewing damage throughout the county. Hancock said there were a total of 153 homes damaged and 23 were destroyed. Hancock also told Willis there were 20 businesses damaged with six of them being destroyed. Stan Green is another who narrowly escaped serious injury. He was knocked out of his rental home on Edwards Street when the tornado slammed a tree down on his roof. He said this was the second home he's had to leave in a little over a year after his last place burned down on Dec. 15, 2010. "I guess. I'm not going to buy any lottery tickets, that's for sure," Green said. Luck may have been on his side when a beam collapsed above him and only hit him on the head with glancing blow. Georgia Power crews continued to work into the night restoring electricity. According to Floyd EMA, there were 35 power poles broken and 70 spans of wire that had to be replaced. Crews started the day with 3,500 customers still in the dark and about 2,000 were still without power by 6 p.m. A spokesperson said all customers were expected to be back on by midnight.

Residents will get one more day to clean up storm damage before rain returns. Highs on Saturday are expected to be in the low 60s and mostly sunny. A few showers will develop early Christmas morning with temperatures in the mid-50s on Sunday.