ROME, Ga. — Members of Rome are picking up the pieces Saturday after a strong storm system rolled through in the early hours leaving devastating damage in its wake.
As Georgia was pummeled with more severe weather, residents and businesses in the northern part of the state described the moments powerful winds unrooted trees and mangled structures.
“Everybody was scared but no one was hurt," Tara Evans, a store clerk at a Rome convenience store said.
Evans works at the Maple Quick Stop convenience store on Maple and East 20th Street in Rome.
She opens the store at 6 a.m. on Saturdays and got quite the scare when the storm rolled through town.
“It was storming. The rain just started blowing sideways and all of a sudden something hit the store," Evans said. "We though this was lightning but it was a big tree in the back of the store."
What hit the store was a huge tree that crushed the back of the building, destroying a game room, knocking out power and leaving a huge mess.
There were several signs of storm damage 11 Alive found throughout the town and cleanup crews were already out trying to clear away tree limbs so that Georgia Power workers could secure wires torn down during the storm.
As of this afternoon, just in Floyd County alone, there were over 2,200 customers without power, according to Georgia Power.
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