Severe Weather in Polk County, Atlanta Area Devastates Homes
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. Take a look at this. This is the kind of hail and severe weather that has been sweeping through the South, thanks to an I-reporter, Mike Zicheck. He shot this video around 3:00 p.m. from his home in Cummings, Georgia. He said it sounded like a train pouncing on the windows. We'll have much more of the "BALLOT BOWL" in just a moment. First, the latest on the severe weather throughout the South. You see those images north of Georgia. We've also seen in the past 24 hours a lot of damage that resulted from the tornado that touched down in downtown Atlanta last night. It measured at an F2 tornado, which means up to 130-mile-per-hour winds. You saw a lot of damage to vehicles. There have been trees down and at least 20 homes have been damaged in what's known as an historic neighborhood called Cabbagetown. There you can see the runoff. Flash flooding reported as well. Jacqui Jeras is in the Weather Center keeping a close watch on all this. We've taking a look at what resulted from last night. It's still not over?</s>JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, not by any means, Fredricka. The thing I want you to notice, a new watch which has been issued. It's the second box that pops up here. This is what we call a PDS watch, or a particularly dangerous situation. It's a rare day that the Storm Prediction Center would issue a watch like this. What it means is they're expecting to see a large outbreak of tornadoes, ones that will be big. They'll be on the ground and they'll track for a long period of time and can cause a lot of destruction. Also many large hail events and also many wind events expected with it, also. Look at the big area that this is covering overall. We have many warnings still in place. That's all the purple boxes which are beginning to pop out. Notice Georgia. This is the area we've been watching very closely all afternoon. Right now, no purple boxes. But we are seeing on the south side of town in particular still some very strong thunderstorms capable of producing some damaging winds. All right. We'll take you up here into the Carolinas. That's where we have many of the warnings. The town of Due West has already been hit hard once. You've got another warning in place for you. Also that includes the folks in Greenwood area. Columbia, you've had two storms moving just kind of surrounding you. Look at how they kind of slid and don't really move over the city. One is moving north. One is moving south. This storm here which includes Johnston, Saluda and also the Oak Grove area, this one looks like a big hail-maker. We've had reports up to baseball size hail across parts of north Georgia and through South Carolina. That's been one of the really big threats that continues to be ongoing. Now, here is the downtown Atlanta area. We had one severe storm move through that possibly touched down another tornado. We're hearing a little additional damage at this time. The storms that you're seeing moving down towards Peach Tree City, which continue to move toward the airport area, those storms right now are not tornadic. So hopefully it will stay that way. We do have several hours of ongoing severe weather with this new watch. And the Storm Prediction Center also has highlighted eastern Georgia and throughout central South Carolina as one of those high- risk days. They've upgraded it from earlier today indicating the threat is much greater of tornadoes. If we get any additional information of tornadoes on the ground or damage, of course, we'll bring those along to you. We've already seen plenty of that including a fatality into Polk County, Georgia, and several touchdowns with damage north of the city of Atlanta.</s>WHITFIELD: Jacqui let's talk more about what's taking place in Polk County north of Atlanta. We're now receiving images of the damage that has been sustained there. Right there, some new images we're getting from the help of our affiliates there. You can see what used to be a home obliterated. The car is still intact. The person standing in disbelief as to what has happened here. When we get a wide view we'll get an idea of just what this entire community might look like. As you know, Jacqui, and everyone else watching these images, so often when you have particularly rural areas, it is not unusual to see one home and perhaps another house just a half mile away that is not touched by the storm. But in this case it looks like this is a straight path. That house obliterated as well. Don Lemon is in Polk County joining us now with an eye of exactly what you're assessing there. What have you been seeing?</s>DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hey, Fredricka, you said a half mile. Not even. Some homes that are really close together and structures close together. One is demolished. We're at the Wheelers house. They've lost a lot. They've been kind to us because they want people to see their loss so they know what everyone in the community is going through. Take a look at the Wheeler's house. This is a patio they just had built, this decking out here, nice hot tub, pool. On the other side a barn they built a year ago. It is completely gone. And if you look at their property here, you see all sorts of damage. Their belongings thrown about, a trailer over here. On the other side of the house, to my right -- your left over here -- their garage. You can't see it here. We're standing actually right here on the second floor. This roof is gone. And the roof that covered this room, a room belonging to Jared Wheeler who joins us now. He came up while we were doing this, standing in his room. You guys, it was a frightening experience.</s>JARED WHEELER, HOMEOWNER: It was very scary. We went downstairs and we had mattresses and stuff when we heard it on the news. We just got mattresses and stayed in the hallway and got ready for it.</s>LEMON: This is your room. What if you had been in here?</s>WHEELER: I would have been -- I would have gotten taken away I guess. I don't know.</s>LEMON: Jared Wheeler, glad you're OK. 15 years old. This is his room. The windows completely blown out. They've covered much of the roof around here. Let's walk around here, Steve. This is a lot of what's going on. We're going to walk around here. These are neighbors and friends of the Wheelers. How are you guys doing? They're actually helping on the roof to cover his roof to make sure that it doesn't get wet and their home doesn't get any worse than it is. Here is the really awful part of it, Fred, that I want to tell you. Again, this was a roof. They've managed to cover it with tarp so far. This right here, the hot item that we've been seeing around all day in my hand right here, this tarp they've been using to cover. So right over here, you see that big area there where there's a big tree and there's a foundation there now, that used to be a home, a two-story home. And sadly the one fatality that we do have confirmed here in Polk County came from that home just across the street from the Wheelers. The husband is in the hospital, we're told, in critical condition. And we're not sure about the wife. We're hearing that the wife there possibly is the one who was deceased in the all of this. You can see the randomness of all of this. It's weird because Polk County, the county line runs right through the yard of where the person died. I don't know if you can look over there and see family members are now going through their things. They just arrived here about 10, 15 minutes ago and started going through their things here. The county line for Polk and Floyd County runs right through their yard here. And then Bartow County also meets up behind here. I want to show you a wide expanse. Pan to your left over here, Steve. All of this. Right here is a car -- their truck is on the other side here where you see the sort of really green grass and a big tree that's up. That was their truck that blew all the way from their home. Mr. Wheeler here -- his maim is Joe Wheeler -- said once he realized his family was safe and looked across the street and he saw his neighbor's house, he ran over and he and a friend actually found the two people over there and called for ambulances and made sure they got to the hospital. That's what's happening here in Polk County, Fredricka. It is just an awful, awful scene. We'll continue to update you and follow this story.</s>WHITFIELD: So sad. Thank you so much, Don Lemon in Polk County. That was ground zero in Polk County north of Atlanta. Soon you'll see what ground zero looks like in downtown Atlanta. Cabbagetown, that neighborhood saw some of the worst damage last night. Today residents got word that more twisters could be on the way. CNN's Cal Perry had to take cover as well.</s>CAL PERRY, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We're actually here in a house in the same neighborhood we've been reporting from all day. We've just gotten a second and third tornado warning. We heard sirens. Rad Rattinger (ph) was nice enough to have us in their house, his wife, Noel (ph). Their house was hit last night. They're here with friends and family members who have come and brought beer with them bunkered down. We're here near the bathroom in case things get down. We've already heard hail. The sign was, last time, you said, things turned green? RAD RATTINGER (ph),</s>CABBAGETOWN HOMEOWNER: I just said that we can't get (inaudible).</s>PERRY: Knock on wood.</s>RATTINGER (ph): Knock on wood.</s>PERRY: So this is pretty much what it is. In this neighborhood they're worried they're going to get hit twice. You saw the reconstruction we've been reporting on all day. With dark clouds on the horizon, will reconstruction really matter? Everybody here, of course, said it will. Cal Perry, CNN, Atlanta.</s>WHITFIELD: Lots of scary stuff here in the southeast. The southeast still not out of the woods so to speak. We'll be checking in through out the evening with Jacqui Jeras and our other crews to find out exactly what is happening in the southeast as it pertains to weather. Meantime, we want to take you very far north into New York. A crane apparently collapsed today in midtown Manhattan. And that crane collapse left four people dead and has trapped at least five others. I-reporter Jarrett Hoffman shot these pictures you're looking at right now. Part of the crane hit a high-rise residential building across the street. Some pretty tense moments there. Tense moments, too, on the presidential campaign trail. Presidential candidates stumping hard with some critical contests just a few weeks away. Back to "BALLOT BOWL '08" right after this.