Severe Storm in Woodstock, GA

I left work at 6:00PM on Tuesday. I did not get home until around 9:50PM... That was one long drive. The drive started off like normal, late rush our traffic. Perhaps a little bit lighter than normal.

Along the way, reports of possible severe storms on the news and on my drive some pretty intense lighting flares up. While this is going on the dark clouds begin to roll in. I check the radar on my Blackberry and see a pretty intense cell about to move through the area. I am driving right into it.

A little bit further down the road the rain starts to fall. Light at first, then some fat drops pecking away on the car. Rounding a curve then WHAM!...

The storm hit. A wall of wind and rain lashes the road. The cars in front of me are about 200 feet ahead and they slow down and come to a stop. I could only barely see them from their brake lights, the wind and rain is so intense. Slowing from 40 miles per hour to about 10, five, and then a complete stop. By this time the wind is lashing from multiple directions. (that was really freaky). I could see the swirling of the wind from the rain, then the debris picks up.

Sticks, small tree limbs, pine cones are all being blown about. Some rebounding off the car and windshield. The wind is still blowing from seemingly multiple directions. The line of cars in front of me picks up and slowly moves ahead a little bit. Not sure if out of general fear or just trying to position themselves better. During this point I tried to make sure I was not in the direct line of any trees in case they toppled... but the wind was still picking up at this point. Then the hail hits. Small pebbles at first, then marble sized, and then golf ball. I would say there was some lemon sized, that may just be a slight exaggeration as they sounded a hell of a lot bigger hitting the car.

I closed the interior panel for the sunroof, just in case. I was really expecting a hailstone or some piece of debris to come through a window. (either before or just after) the wind hit again by thus time the cars had come to a stop again, and I seriously thought about getting out of the car and looking for a ditch (I'm not sure if that is a still a recommended course of action for tornado's if you are stuck in a car).

A moment after that, the cell passed and the wind began to let up, the hail stopped and while the rain continued for a short while longer. The line of traffic began to move again, by this time though the road had disappeared. There were leaves everywhere, small limbs, sticks, and dirt. You literally could barely see the road. The slow moving line of traffic proceeded around downed trees, limbs and finally came to rest at a large tree in the road. Many folks turned around, including myself and we attempted to locate an alternate area around the blockage.

We backed tracked a short ways and turned on a road, which loops back into Arnold Mill further up. Shortly up this road though, there was a lady and her son standing on the road, with an umbrella telling folks to turn around due to downed trees and power lines. She also stated they had no power, no cell phone service, or telephone service and to call 911 (no reports of injuries). I was not familiar with the name of the road, so I slowly proceed back again looking for a road sign, however, my action was not needed as sheriff's car and a emergency vehicle came up the road about a minute later.

This time I am back to Arnold Mill road and can either head back east towards the office and try to track south (not looking forward to that), or heading back to the tree and see if the emergency services folks had moved/cleared the tree.

A bit more traffic has shown up by this time, so am a lot further back rather than in the front of the line. Visiblity is nil and the moving is very slow. Finally through attrition of folks turning around we reach the tree I was at before. I had the windows down and hear a loud hissing... first thought is gas leak. Right I was, though people kept turning around, soon we were able to move past the tree which was blocking the east bound lane, with the west bound lane having been slightly cleared.

There was a lot of people collecting here as all the other roads in this area had power lines down and thus no one was able to go any further... not only that it was a small box canyon of sorts as the gas leak and downed tree were preventing people from back tracking... Now we are stuck.

Fire department personnel show up and have people vacate the area of the leak, turn off cars, and take control of the area. More emergency services arrives and a pair of them manage to cap/plug the leak. Not sure what they initially used, but it was held on with duct tape... I know that much. By the time that leak was plugged the other crews had handled the other trees and power lines and people were beginning to slowly file out of the area.

All told this was a two hour process or so. Interesting, intense, and surreal. The area was heavily hit and there is a fair amount of property damage. I will take a closer look at my vehicle in the morning. From hail, road debris, to flying debris, if it has no damage that will be amazing.

Google Maps of the area just east of Woodstock, GA

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WSBTV Storm Damage Slideshow
http://www.wsbtv.com/slideshow/news/16344200/detail.html

FOX 5 Atlanta Storm Damage Pictures
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_gallery.jsp?contentId=6588222&version=1&locale=EN-US