Governor Kemp tours Milledgeville tornado damage with First Lady

EF-1 tornado caused significant damage in Baldwin County

MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp toured the damage left behind by weekend storms in Milledgeville on Tuesday morning.

The National Weather Service reported an EF-1 tornado had moved through Baldwin County on Sunday, estimating it was on the ground for 15 to 20 minutes with winds reaching up to 100 miles per hour.

Governor Kemp expressed disbelief at the damage the powerful winds brought to the community.

“If you’re in one of these homes, where the roof’s blown off or the front porch is being torn off or you have metal being ripped off your roof and it’s in some tree, you know you don’t really think about what size storm it is,” Kemp said. “We are very lucky not only over there but lucky here too that we had no loss of life.”

Keith Stellman, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Atlanta, explained how the agency assesses damage.

“The combination of the tree damage and the structural damage to the roofs and the buildings in particular, and the wind speed it takes to those,” Stellman said. “It’s sort of a reverse thing. We look at the damage and work backwards to look at the wind speed.”

Mike Smith, Chief of Staff for Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, said the state had been working with local agencies to restore power.

“As far as power restoration, as of right of this morning, it looks like we should have all the residents and businesses back online,” Smith said. “There could be one or two stragglers, so if you are without power please be patient, but power should be restored to the area at this time.”

Governor Kemp also noted that the Georgia Emergency Management Agency is still assessing and inspecting roads and bridges for further damage.