Residents and business owners across six Georgia counties pummeled by a severe storm and midnight tornado earlier this month can now apply for a low-interest loan after the federal government declared a wide swath east of Atlanta a disaster area.
The severe weather was part of a system that tore across the Southeast April 2 , unleashing at least 16 tornados across a handful of states, including Georgia, where Rockdale County was the hardest-hit. There, a tornado hit the ground southwest of Conyers just before midnight with 115 mph winds and cleaved a path of destruction northeast of Olde Town Conyers for nearly 10 miles.
“My living room has been impaled by a tree,” Conyers resident Carolyn Gillman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. Only two minor injuries were reported, both from falling trees, according to law enforcement.
Rockdale had over 300 homes damaged or destroyed, according to Meredith Barnum of the county’s emergency management agency. She said it was the first tornado to hit the county since 1974.