(Photos of Dade tornado damage in this article were contributed to Dade County by various citizens.)
Dade is still mopping up after Sunday's storm, which Alex Case, county emergency services director, says the National Weather Service has now confirmed as a tornado.
"They have confirmed it was an EF1 tornado with winds up to 100 mph," Case, who is incidentally also the mayor of Trenton, reported at today's 3 p.m. livestreamed county briefing.
Case said the April 12 tornado had affected 102 homes in Dade, 14 of them severely, with three to five sustaining major structural damage. Dade County Executive Chairman Ted Rumley said Georgia Power had reported 1074 still out of power in Dade this morning. The lights won't come back on in some of those houses until Wednesday morning, the utility company had told him. The power company had earlier hoped to restore all households by tonight, but more poles and lines were down than originally estimated. Rumley said the continued outages would apply to TV cable and internet, too.
Gov. Brian Kemp has declared a state of emergency, and Alex Case said GEMA--the Georgia Emergency Management Agency--is trying to get individual assistance for anyone uninsured whose home was injured in the storm. The state has opened its resources to the county free or charge and Case has requested six dump trucks among other loans from the state
Case had spent part of Monday tracking the tornado with the NWS and described it as having entered Dade from DeKalb County on the Alabama side of Sand Mountain, doing damage to Brown Tire on the mountain, coming down to the valley through Valley View Estates and part of Back Valley Road, then on across to Trenton proper, doing damage to a section of Walnut Street, hitting Dade County High School, Dade County Water and Sewer Company and Canyon Park Estates before it headed up Lookout Mountain.
If you have damage to your property and have not reported it to the county, you can call Case's office at (706) 657-4111. If you are insured you should report the damage to your insurance company, said Case. Renters may be eligible for some benefits, and in any case the county can put them in touch with Red Cross, which is arranging shelter for those displaced by the storm.
Ted Rumley added that if you come across distressed animals in cleaning up after the storm, Carla Dyer is certified to deal with wildlife--you can call her at (423) 605-1035.
He also added that, aptly, this is dispatcher appreciation week so it might be a good time to show the 911 crew some love. "Don't pat them on the back," said Rumley. "Stand six feet away but do tell them you appreciate them."
