Damage from a hellacious afternoon storm

We have debris and scattered power outages across Columbus. The force of an afternoon thunderstorm can cause high winds, heavy rain, and intense lightning. We had all of that and more. A wind speed of 66 mph was measured at the Columbus airport during the severe storms today.

According to the National Weather Service, some parts of Muscogee County and the Chattahoochee Valley experienced wind speeds of 70 mph, close to hurricane force winds. The result was downed trees, tree limbs, and power outages. At the peak, 17,000 power outages were reported. Some area roads were impassable.

The good news is the rain helped with the drought deficit. The bad news is power outages this time of year make for miserable living conditions.  Interesting that I never heard a severe weather warning siren prior to the storm and trust me, I live close enough that I would have been alerted and my dog would have certainly heard a siren, she can hear a leaf drop.

Now Georgia will update the story as soon as we get new information.