Kemp Tours Storm-Damaged Towns in South Georgia

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Gov. Brian Kemp traveled Friday to towns in south Georgia where severe storms recently damaged several homes and businesses.

Kemp flew to Pelham to assess damage in that community and the surrounding area, according to a schedule provided by his office. He then went to Adel to do the same.

“On the ground in South Georgia surveying the damage after the severe weather yesterday,” Kemp tweeted. “Please continue to join me in praying for the Georgians in these communities who have been impacted.”

The storm system tore through the South on Thursday, killing at least seven people in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana.

In Georgia, a suspected tornado swept through Adel, tearing off roofs and flipping at least one car and a small plane. The tornado struck about a block from the offices of The Adel News-Tribune, said Maria Hardman, the newspaper’s general manager.

The city’s old train depot on South Burwell Avenue was heavily damaged, Hardman told The Valdosta Daily Times.

Damage was caused by a combination of straight-line winds and the tornado, said Wright Dobbs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee, Florida, office.

There were no reports of injuries or deaths in Georgia. On Friday, the governor also extended the state of emergency due to severe storms until May 7, WALB-TV reported.

In Anniston, Alabama, a firefighter and an emergency medical worker were injured when part of a tree fell atop them while they were rescuing a person who was trapped inside a home by a tree that fell during a storm, Anniston EMS said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. The workers and the resident were all taken to a hospital, but none of the injuries was life-threatening, the agency said.

In Louisiana, a man was later found dead after a witness saw him try to retrieve a trash can from water near a drainage ditch; He lost his footing and was swept away by floodwaters, DeSoto Parish Sheriff Jayson Richardson told The Shreveport Times.

“There was some pretty extreme flooding here in Mansfield. Water like I’ve not seen in many, many years, if ever,” the sheriff told the newspaper. “Basically the water rose really fast and we had to rescue some people out of homes. I think we had about 20 or so homes that people were flooded in.”

Becky Carter Roberts, 67, was killed during a storm in Lecompte, Louisiana, 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Alexandria, news outlets reported. The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately say how she died.