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Tornado Batters West Georgia After Killing People In Alabama
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Communities in West Georgia have been declared in states of emergency by Gov. Brian Kemp following tornadoes that battered the region Sunday, and an emergency shelter has opened that can accommodate 100 people.
As GPB’s Grant Blankenship reports from the city of Talbotton, some of the losses were generational.
Two separate residential areas in Talbotton were slammed by a tornado. And while homes were ripped apart and at least in once case spun on their foundations, there were no major injuries.
A tangle of oak limbs blocked the path to Allen Dwyers once two story home in Talbotton. At 80 and with heart trouble, he’s was making his way through the mess with the help of neighbors to see what was left of this home built in 1850.
"It’s been in my family….I’d have to sit and think….a long, long time," Dwyer said. "Made it 160 years, then Mother Nature took care of it."
As Dwyer resumed his way up the hill, a helicopter bearing the Georgia governor flew over. Somehow left unharmed in an area of high damage was an antebellum home that appeared in the film "Gone with the Wind."
By early afternoon Monday, 25 people were in a Red Cross emergency shelter in Talbotton that can accommodate 100 people.