Storm brings damaging winds

John Oxford

June 12, 2008 10:18 pm

— MOULTRIE — A series of storm fronts Wednesday evening that brought much-needed rain also caused scattered destruction, including demolishing a barn in the southwest part of the county, damaging homes and downing trees.
Late Thursday afternoon on Coleman Road farmer Kim Perryman was still at work loading equipment from his damaged shop building into a semi trailer.
Perryman said the strong winds came through at about 7:45 p.m., and that he thought a straight-line wind is what caused the damage.
“I was in there in the house looking out the window and tin flew by,” he said.
The front portion of the shop building collapsed and tin was ripped from the roof by the storm.
The winds also uprooted a large pecan tree, which Perryman already had removed Thursday afternoon, and they snapped two medium-sized pine trees near their bases.
“It had to be strong,” Perryman’s father-in-law J.I. Hatcher said of the winds as he examined the tin and other equipment scattered around the area.
Perryman estimated that it will cost about $50,000 to replace the shop. His house was not damaged.
Kelly Godsey, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee, said that the description of the downed pine trees would lead him to estimates that the winds could have been as strong as 80 miles per hour. The office issued three warnings based on radar Wednesday that included Colquitt County, including two severe thunderstorm alerts.
The storm that hit Perryman’s area likely was the one for which an alert was issued at 7:38 p.m.
“Most thunderstorms like this produce winds of 60 to 80 miles per hour,” Godsey said. “That particular storm was a rather impressive storm, especially when it got to Mitchell County. To snap a tree winds would probably have to be 70 to 80 miles per hour.”
Based on radar observations, the office estimated that the storms dropped between one and two inches of rain in portions of Colquitt County.
Russell Moody, county emergency management director, said that he also had reports of homes damaged near Berlin on Tallokas Road and one in Ellenton.
Some trees also were down in the Berlin area and there were scattered downings in isolated areas, he said.
“This time of year, and as hot as it is, they (thunder storms) will just pop up out of nowhere,” Moody said.
Moody said he had not received any reports of power outages related to the storms.
Godsey said that weather alert radios can make a huge difference in surviving severe weather events.
“Sometimes they can help save your life,” he said. “These weather radios will go off when we issue these warnings.”

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