MACON, Ga. — As homeowners and EMA crews took stock of the damage left behind from Tuesday's storms, they also had to deal with another active weather day.
We faced hail, flooding, thunderstorms, and more possible tornadoes, including a dual funnel cloud over Walmart in Cordele.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-3 tornado hit Bonaire Tuesday afternoon.
It happened just south of Robins Air Force Base in the Statham's Landing subdivision.
Crews are still working to assess the tornado's path, but they estimated winds between 158 to 206 miles per hour.
NWS crews are set to come back Thursday to conduct more surveys.
Crews were still cleaning up damage from severe weather in Macon on Wednesday.
Chris Floore with Macon-Bibb County said that the area around Rosa Taylor Elementary School was their primary focus for clearing away storm damage.
On Tuesday, damage from severe weather blocked access in and out of the school due to downed trees and powerlines. Both staff and students were stuck inside Rosa Taylor until 6:15 p.m. Classes were canceled for Wednesday, and faculty and staff worked from home.
Stephanie Hartley with the district says they expect the school to return to normal operations and for students to be back in class on Thursday.
All other schools in Bibb County returned to classes on Wednesday morning.
Our counties weren't in the clear after those afternoon storms, as more tornado warnings went out at around 8 p.m. in our eastern counties.
During their coverage, 13WMAZ meteorologists Ben Jones and Alex Forbes noticed a debris signature in Johnson County near the area of Kite.
We spoke to EMA Director Shawn Wombles, who says his crews were out surveying the damage.
"Our crews are out right now, dodging power lines. We do have multiple power lines down, multiple homes have some type of damage to them. I probably -- right now, if you asked me for a number, we've probably got about 10 that have trees through them," Wombles said. "We do have a lot of debris on the roads. One of the homes that was affected blocked an entire road where pieces of the wall was out, and we're working trying to clear that up."
Your Photos: Severe storms leave damage across Central Georgia
Wombles says they are not getting reports of injuries so far, which he says they are thankful for. He urges everyone to stay put for now as they work to clear downed trees and power lines, and only go out if you have an emergency.
13WMAZ: What’s happening in your county right now? What kind of damage are you seeing, if any?
Shawn Wombles: We do have multiple homes in the Kite area which is located on the eastern side of our county. Multiple homes with damage, mobile homes and your standalone structures. We got multiple power outages, lots of trees down at this time. We have crews in the area working, trying to determine exactly what all is damaged and if we have any injuries. At this point, we have not had any injuries reported which is a good thing. But our crews are out right now, dodging power lines. We do have multiple power lines down, multiple homes have some type of damage to them. I probably right now, if you asked me for a number, we’ve probably got about 10 that have trees through them. We do have a lot of debris on the roads.
13WMAZ: Is there anything that you advise people in your county to do or not do right now, at this time?
Shawn Wombles: If you live on the eastern side of our county, particularly south of Georgia 57, over to the eastern side of our county near Kite, before you head out to do anything, make sure you’re looking to see there’s no live power lines laying on the ground. We really ask that everybody just stay put unless they’re injured or have some type of an emergency. If they would just stay put for us until we could get these roads opened up. We do have a lot of debris on the roads. One of the homes that was affected blocked an entire road where pieces of the wall was out and we’re working trying to clear that up because that is a main passage way that a lot of people from the eastern side use to travel to and from work. We are blessed this week because schools are out on spring break so we don’t have to worry about schools in the morning. But we are asking everybody to stay put unless they have some type of an emergency and need to leave. If they have any damage we’re asking that they please call the Wrightsville Fire Department which is where our Emergency Operations Center is open and that number is (478) 864-9759. If they’ll call there and report that damage, then we’ll be out–we’ll have crews out again in the morning, first thing, doing damage assessment. But right now, we’re in the response mode where we’re just wanting to make sure our citizens are safe.
13WMAZ: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Shawn Wombles: Not at this time. We’re just thankful that at this point, we haven’t had any injuries reported and we’re praying we don’t have any reported.
If you have any damage, Wombles asks that you call their emergency operations center at the Wrightsville Police Department at 478-864-9759.
Laurens County is another area where our meteorologists were tracking storms.
Our skycam in Dublin lit up with lightning around 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
Bryan Rogers, the administrator for Laurens County, says they're seeing downed trees and power lines, mostly in the areas of Rentz and Dexter.
13WMAZ spoke with Rogers about the conditions in the county, and he says there doesn't appear to be any structural damage or injuries as of now, but it's still a dangerous situation.
13WMAZ: What’s happening in your county right now? What kind of damage are you seeing, if any?
Bryan Rogers: We’ve got a good bit of damage around Cadwell, Rentz, and Dexter areas. A good many trees down. Doesn’t appear to be a lot of structural damage at this time but a lot of power lines down, things of that nature. Fortunately, we have no reports of injuries. We’ve had some entrapments, things like that, some vehicles hitting trees in the roadways but no one has been injured so far so we’re very thankful for that. So right now, we’re just encouraging everyone to stay in; don’t be riding around because like I said, there’s a lot of power lines entangled with the trees. It’s going to take us a while to get those trees moved because of those lines without having power crews with us, we have to wait on them so. Right now most of the damage seems to be in the Rentz-Dexter-Cadwell area so that little triangle there.
13WMAZ: Is there anything people in Laurens County need to do, phone numbers they need to call if they see or have damage?
Bryan Rogers: If they see trees down, things of that nature, they can call 911. Of course, we’ll be scouring the areas, looking, trying to get the routes out. Just asking people to please be patient with us because a lot of these trees we can’t move until the power company is there with us to make sure there’s no electricity still on the line. So just–and please people, just stay in. A lot of times people want to ride around and look at damage but that’s the worst thing that they could do at this point in time.
13WMAZ: Is there anything you would like to add?
Bryan Rogers: No, that’s it. Just thankful that we–right now, there’s no reports of injuries, we’re very thankful for that. Also you might want to know, we got the interstate clear now all through Laurens County. There is still some debris in the roadway but for the most part, all the trees and stuff like that are suppose to be out of the way but there is still limbs and debris and stuff like that so you should still be able to get up and down the interstate at this point in time.
