Brooks-Cook-Berrien Tornado...
Rating: EF3
Estimated Peak Wind: 140 mph
Path Length /statute/: 24.88 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 700 yards
Fatalities: 11
Injuries: 0
Start Date: 01/22/2017
Start Time: 03:29 AM EST
Start Location: 4 ENE Sand Hill / Brooks County / GA
Start Lat/Lon: 30.9998 / -83.5841
End Date: 01/22/2017
End Time: 03:58 AM EST
End Location: 2 N Allenville / Berrien County / GA
End Lat/Lon: 31.1557 / -83.2095
Summary: This was the second tornado to touch down from the same
parent tornado that impacted Thomas and northwest Brooks Counties.
The tornado touched down at EF-1 strength in northern Brooks
County near Georgia Route 122 just west of the Moultrie Highway
snapping trees along the highway. Near the intersection of Georgia
Route 133, or the Valdosta Highway, the tornado strengthened to
EF-3 blowing out two of the four concrete walls of a small
business building. A short distance later, the tornado ripped a
strapped-down double wide mobile home and tossed it about 100
feet into a drainage ditch and across Route 122. Two people inside
the home were killed. Several nearby trees had their barked
stripped off. The tornado then crossed Georgia Route 76 at EF-3
strength and ripped about a third of the second story from a well-
built brick home. A short distance up the road, the tornado
shifted a wood-framed home about 12 feet off its foundation while
removing its second story.
The tornado then continued into Cook County. Still at EF-3
strength, it swept about 35 manufactured homes into a pile of
rubble at the far end of the Sunshine Acres mobile home park.
Seven people lost their lives. The tornado then went on to destroy
about two thirds of a brick home on Val Del Road, collapsing in
two walls and removing most of the second story. Another home
built of concrete blocks was destroyed. A nearby farm had several
concrete anchors for a large metal structure pulled from the
ground.
The tornado progressed into Berrien County where it completely
removed the second story of a wood frame home on South Coffee
Road. Just up the road, a well-strapped double wide home was
completely removed and tossed into nearby trees and hedges. The
last of the EF-3 damage occurred on Old Lois Road where most of
the roof of a brick home was removed. An add-on room on the back
of the home was flattened by a massive live oak tree crushing two
occupants to death in their bed. The tornado continue past Old
Valdosta Road stripping bark from several trees in the area and
then produced EF-2 damage just past U.S. Route 129 on County
Road before lifting.
