Ray Hobbs

Weather officials today are assessing reports of tornadic activity all across the Tri-state region around Chattanooga.

In Tennessee, reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds stretched from Dunlap, up Walden’s Ridge to the Sequatchie/Hamilton county line, and paths of splintered trees gouged Hamilton County in Sale Creek as well as Calhoun in McMinn County.

Georgia officials reported a possible tornado in Chattooga County near Summerville, said Ken Davis of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Huntsville, Ala., area weather officials Friday night said they believed but still had not confirmed that an EF2 tornado in northern Marshall, southern Jackson and western DeKalb counties. Official damage surveys throughout the region were hindered by nightfall, officials said.

The Good Friday storms were part of an angry red radar line that shoved it’s way eastward across the Southeast throughout Friday afternoon and evening, killing a woman and her 9-week-old infant and injuring at least 41 others near Murphreesboro, Tenn.

The winds lifted homes, ripped off roofs, toppled trees and powerlines and cut electricity to tens of thousands throughout the region. Although Chattanooga dodged much of the wind damage, airport rain gauges measured almost an inch of rain — 0.88 of an inch, a record for the date, said Jerry Getz, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn. EPB officials on Friday said linemen were working to restore power to 25,000 customers in the Chattanooga area, most in the northern part of Hamilton County.

Mr. Getz said Southeast Tennessee weather surveys today will assess reports of tornadic activity from Dunlap, up Walden’s Ridge to the Sequatchie/Hamilton county line, as well as damage in Hamilton County’s Sale Creek and McMinn County’s Calhoun, Tenn.

“It sounds now like the most significant damage was in Sequatchie County,” he said Thursday evening. “At 3:05 p.m. Central time, the (emergency management agency there) reported a tornado on the ground about six miles southwest of Dunlap.”

Witness accounts

The winds tore away parts of the porch awnings and roof on the Sequatchie County High School, and a weather spotter told officials he saw a funnel cloud between (Sequatchie/Hamilton) County Line Road and Dunlap near U.S. Highway 127.

As the storm line moved eastward, it wreaked more havoc near Sale Creek at 4:20 p.m. Sale Creek Fire Department officials reported 150 trees down in a 1,000-foot-wide path. At 4:30, the Weather Service received a report of a roof being ripped from a Sale Creek home.

Fifteen minutes later, in Calhoun, Tenn., in McMinn County, reports came in of several homes being damaged, Mr. Getz said.

“As of 6 p.m., no injuries had been reported,” he said.

Sequatchie County High School’s maintenance supervisor Ray Hobbs estimated there was about $10,000 in damage to the school’s roof, much of which littered the parking lot in the storm’s wake.

“All of this stuff was in the back of the building,” said Ray Hobbs, maintenance supervisor, referring to the debris. “It came cartwheeling across the front, all the way across the building making 30 or 40 gauges in the roof.”

There was more water damage on the inside, he said.

Jimmy Smith and his family were in their underground garage Sequatchie and didn’t realize until the storm was over that a tree had fallen on his jeep Cherokee.

“I had just cut down three trees and left that one standing but the wind took care of it,” Mr. Smith said.

Third shift worker Linda Seals, of Dunlap, said she was in bed asleep when her husband woke her at 3:30 p.m. Central time.

“He told me to get up because we may have to run,” she said. “We had a ---- of a storm. We had hail. We had wind. We had everything.

Soddy-Daisy police responded to about 31 weather related calls. It was mostly trees on wires, said dispatcher Jamie St. Aubin. No injuries and no major accidents, she said.

More than 100 emergency calls came into McMinn County’s Sheriff’s Office during the storm, dispatcher Teresa Stafford said. Several houses were damaged in the Riceville area, she said. Trees and power lines were also down and there were some injuries. However, Ms. Stafford said she didn’t know how many.

In Hamilton County, areas hit hard were Dallas Bay and Sale Creek, said Hamilton County Emergency Services spokeswoman Amy Maxwell.

“We had reports of shingles off roofs. We had a large tree fall through a house of an elderly couple. The couple wasn’t injured, but the American Red Cross was called to assist the family,” she said.

Georgia and Alabama reports

Things also were hectic Friday afternoon in the Chattooga County 911 office.

“Power is out in Summerville. Roofs are off buildings downtown and outlying areas. We’re being slammed,” the county dispatcher gushed. “Excuse me, is there a number I can call you back when it slows down a bit?”

The storm there left fallen trees, downed power lines, damaged buildings and some smashed cars, but no severe injuries were reported, emergency officials said.

Mr. Davis, with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, said there were many reports of twisters — still unconfirmed — in North Georgia. In Franklin County near the Georgia/North Carolina line, there were three reported tornado touchdowns, and many poultry houses were destroyed. The debris closed several highways and state routes, and damaged 25 homes, he said.

Nearer to the Tennessee state line, Ron Goulart sat at his law office on LaFayette Road in Fort Oglethorpe shortly before 5 p.m. watching the wind and the rain — in the dark.

The power was off as far as he could see in either direction, and behind his office sat Hutcheson Medical Center, lit by emergency generators, he said.

Ringgold City Councilman Larry Black said hail the size of quarters fell at his Ringgold home but he did not lose power.

“My gutters would not handle the water,” Mr. Black said.

Dave Nadler, a National Weather Service forecaster in Huntsville, said weather surveyors found damage they believed this morning’s second look would confirm as a EF2 tornado in southern Jackson and western DeKalb counties.

“A lot of trees were uprooted and snapped, and several mobile homes and trailers were destroy by trees falling on them,” said Mr. Nadler, adding that he knew of no injuries.

“We were only able to survey about half of the reported damage, and we heard that the worst was where we didn’t get to go before it got dark,” he said.

Elsewhere in Georgia, flights were delayed for up to 90 minutes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as dark gray clouds swirled in from the west.

In Floyd County, south of Chattooga, there were at least 12 large trees that fell across roadways, which were covered with debris, said Tim Herrington, deputy director of emergency management in the county.

Staff writers Beverly Carroll, Yolanda Putman, Mike O’Neal and Ben Benton contributed to this story.