Meteorologists were accurate in their prediction that severe weather would hit the area Thursday afternoon, and the city of Vidalia and the contiguous area of Montgomery County saw just how quickly the weather can become violent.

Vidalia Fire Chief Brian Sikes reported that trees were down from one end of Vidalia to the other, causing large power outages. Power crews worked as quickly as possible and through the night Thursday to get customers’ electricity restored.

“It’s a mess,” Chief Sikes said. “There was a lot of damage all around and even in downtown Vidalia there was structural damage.”

Thankfully, though, Chief Sikes said there were no reports of severe injuries to citizens found, and when firefighters or First Responders found damage to a dwelling, they checked on the occupants to make sure they were not harmed.

Toombs County Emergency Management Agency Director Lynn Moore added, “I believe this is the worse tornado damage I’ve ever seen in the Vidalia area.”

The tornadic weather that ravaged Vidalia Thursday afternoon, didn’t leave Montgomery County unscathed either. Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency Director Donnie Daniels said a large part of the county saw power outages, and the roof on the Health Department in Mount Vernon was damaged. The area around the city of Higgston seemed to get the brunt of the severe weather with trees down, damage to Webster Motors building, and the Higgston Park lost several trees.

“We saw the rotation above us,” Daniels said. “There’s no doubt this was a tornado. We usually don’t see this kind of activity in this part of Georgia, but in the last few years, there’s been more.”

Daniels continues, “It’s still early in the season and we can see more of this as the summer goes on. We put the warnings out to the public and sometimes we look foolish because the weather bypassing us, but people need to take heed to t he warnings because just like Thursday, you never know how fast something like this can come up and it’s always better to be prepared.”