20 years ago today Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Louisiana/Mississippi border. The storm did extreme damage to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but the storm brought plenty of damage well inland, including here across North Georgia.
After making landfall as a weakening but high-end Category 3 storm, Katrina quickly accelerated to the north and persisted as a tropical storm into Southern Tennessee.
As it moved inland the large storm spread a significant tornado outbreak across the southeast. Tornadoes occurred in 12 states as a direct result of the hurricane, ranging from the Gulf Coast all the way to Pennsylvania.
Here across North Georgia there were 14 official tornadoes in the Peachtree City forecast area, with 6 of those occurring across Northeast Georgia. Arguably the worst of these tornadoes came from a cell that produced two tornadoes across Hall and White Counties. Using Radarscope you are able to go back and see the tornado warning as well as the rain and winds associated with the cell. Tight rotation was observed from roughly Lula all the way through just north of Helen.
The first tornado touched down just before midnight near Lula. This tornado would later be rated an EF-0, but was the longest tornado track in the state that day/night. The tornado tracked from near Lula to the Mossy Creek area of White County. The tornado was on the ground for an astonishing 10 miles and damaged countless trees, including some that fell on homes. The maximum width of this tornado was 50 yards.
A tornado warning was issued at 12:11AM EDT for most of White County, including Helen. The same storm cycled and then produced an additional, much stronger tornado. The tornado touched down nearby the historic Hardman Farm and tracked roughly 5 miles into Helen before it lifted upon running into the higher elevations on the eastern side of town. The maximum width of the tornado was an impressive 300 yards. The storm caused significant damage to the Econolodge motel and a nearby clothing store. It is worth noting from the image below that the only thing left standing on the second floor of the motel are the bathrooms: a very important lesson in tornado safety.
Through some miracle, no fatalities nor serious injuries occurred from either of these tornadoes. Despite their overnight timing, warnings went out early enough and were heeded by everyone, no doubt partly thanks to how incredible the hurricane itself was. You can see both tracks below.
Elsewhere in the state 1 fatality did occur in Carrol County where an EF-2 tornado tracked for 5.5 miles and severely damaged or destroyed numerous homes and chicken houses. There were additional tornadoes in Forsyth, Lumpkin and Fannin Counties that knocked down plenty more trees and damaged several homes and businesses, but fortunately there were no injuries or fatalities there either.
For me, Hurricane Katrina is one of my earliest weather memories. I still remember tracking the storm from the library at White County Middle School in my early days as a budding 13 year old meteorologist. The news was full focused on the damage to New Orleans in the coming days and weeks, and the effects of the storm are still felt in that region until today…