Early Friday, the city of Newnan, Georgia, reported damage in and around its historic center due to a tornado and repair crews were working on the site to clean up the impacted areas. The National Weather Service warned that the Newnan tornado was a “particularly dangerous situation” and told residents to protect themselves.
The city has been “hit hard and there is significant damage across the city,” Gina Weathersby, manager of community relations at Newnan Utilities, told CNN. The city is located about 40 miles southwest of Atlanta.
The city of Pelham, Alabama, has suffered damage to about 60 homes, said Pelham fire chief Michael Reid.
“We are also very grateful that, of all the damage, no one was hurt,” said Pelham City manager Gretchen DiFante. “We are very grateful for that tonight.”
In all, there were 22 reports of tornadoes in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi – and at least 10 million people were under tornado surveillance at 2:20 am ET.
At least 5 killed in Alabama
Fourteen tornadoes were only registered in Alabama on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
In Calhoun, three adults from the same family were killed when one hit the city of Ohatchee, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham, according to Calhoun County Coroner Pat Brown. And a man in a mobile home in Ohatchee also died. The fifth death in the county was a woman in a mobile home in Wellington, according to the coroner.
In Pelham, Cesar Villaseñor, 22, was in a van with his boss when they were caught in a potential tornado. They were trying to get shelter at their boss’s home, said Villaseñor.
“We were literally half a mile from his home and everything was clear. Out of nowhere, it started to rain and I started recording – basically everything started going to hell.” In a video that Villaseñor shared, debris is seen flying through the air, uprooted trees fall to the ground and houses are damaged.
“I was like, that’s probably it. I’m probably dead,” he said. “At one point, the van was shaking so badly that I thought it was going to turn. I was just shaking. I couldn’t control my hands.”
Alex McNair, owner of Corefit Strong in Pelham, Alabama, told CNN that his gym was practically destroyed by a tornado.
“The roof was lifted, bricks were thrown through the windows of our garage doors, debris was thrown into the gym, our HVAC unit was pulled from our roof, glass was thrown across the gym, our floor was destroyed, along with another roof and structure damage to other parts of the building, “McNair wrote to CNN. But, he said the most important thing is that nobody gets hurt.
House torn from foundations
There was a devastating scene in a neighborhood in Shelby County, south east of Birmingham.
A tornado completely pulled a house from its foundation and deposited it 30 meters from where it was originally located.
Residents rummaged through the rubble with lanterns in the dark in hopes of rescuing some of their belongings. Broken furniture and a red tractor were stacked in a pile.
This was also an animal rescue center that housed more than 50 horses and several dozen goats and sheep. Without the fences, the animals roamed in disorientation. Now there is a great effort to save these animals.
All the trees around the house were destroyed. And the two elderly people who lived there were with unknown injuries at a local veterans hospital, officials said.
CNN’s Derek Van Dam, Robert Shackelford, Alta Spells, Judson Jones, Dakin Andone and Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report.