Georgia Feels Cindy's Wrath - July 6, 2005

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Georgia Feels Cindy's Wrath - July 6, 2005
July 7, 2005

Damage photos: Henry County || NEW ! Fayette County

On Wednesday, July 6, 2005 the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy made her mark on Georgia. She was a two-fisted storm, unleashing both flooding rainfall and tornadoes. At least one person drowned, and several counties reported damage from wind or tornadoes.

Cindy made landfall in Louisiana/Mississippi overnight Tuesday July 5, then made a turn on Wednesday for a trip across Alabama and northern Georgia. In Georgia, trouble started late in the afternoon when she pushed a band of thunderstorms into west central counties. Several of those storms contained tornadoes or produced wind damage. This band of thunderstorms worked its way across the state Wednesday night, leaving some areas with damage to trees, homes and businesses. Most of the damage was confined to an area that extended from Harris, Troup, and Heard counties along the Alabama border eastward to the southern and eastern portions of the Greater Atlanta Metro Area.

The most serious of the tornadoes was one that struck Henry County southeast of Atlanta. It formed very near the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton. This tornado was estimated at F2 strength...packing winds of around 120 mph. It did over $40 million in damage to the speedway and to the Tara Field Airport nearby. At one point this tornado was about a half mile in width, and the path of damage was 9 miles long.

This information was gathered during a field survey of suspected tornado damage sites on July 7. The survey was conducted by representatives of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City. Their report indicated there was a total of 6 tornadoes in northern Georgia.

A tornado in Fayette County is said to have caused damage in the range of about 3 million dollars.

Rainfall across northern Georgia was in the 2 to 5 inch range...with a few locations receiving close to 6 inches. The official gage in Atanta recorded 5.14 inches for the calendar day - the 6th largest one day total ever recorded. A brief, but signficant flash flood occurred south of Atlanta in Peachtree City (Fayette County). High water blocked some roads there, but tragedy struck the community when a young man was swept into a flooded creek and drowned. Flash flooding affected roads and small streams in several other counties, including Meriwether, Fulton, and Dekalb.

Summary of individual storm reports received.

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[ location of wind damage and also Cindy's 6 tornadoes in Georgia ]