The Spalding County Sheriffs Office recently released video footage of the devastating tornado that violently ripped through the county on January 12th. According to WSB-TV, damages caused by the natural disaster were so severe that Spalding and seven other counties were declared as "federal disaster areas."
In the dash cam video recorded by a Spalding County police officer, viewers can see the sky darken and the wind rapidly pick up. The stoplights located at the intersection of Highway 16 West and McDonough Road in Griffin begin to thrash around as the tornado sweeps closer and closer to the road. Winds increased to such an extreme level that a semi-truck in front of the police car completely flipped onto its side.
Despite the power of the wind, other cars in the video seem to stay rooted to the road until the tornado passes. WSB-TV mentioned that the storm caused $17 million worth of damage to Spalding County properties alone. The "hardest hit" area of the storm caused damage to a whopping 2,100 houses and completely destroyed 100 more. Police predict the price tag of the damages to increase throughout the county as efforts are conducted to aid those still in crisis.