F1 Tornado — Habersham, Georgia

1994-06-26 · near Clarksville To 4w Toc, Habersham, Georgia

Event narrative

A tornado touched down near Demorest along Georgia Highway 365, moved east and produced damage in the communities of Hazel Creek and Camp Creek. The tornado lifted and occasionally touched down along a heavily forested area along Georgia Highway 13. The tornado crossed the Habersham/Stephens county border near Georgia Highway 365 and skipped east through a heavy forested area. The tornado continued east and touched down along Georgia Highway 17, 1.5 miles north of Toccoa where major damage occurred to homes and a few businesses. The tornado lifted several times on its eastward trek across mostly rural forest- land in northern Stephens county before dissipating north of U.S. Highway 123 near the South Carolina/Georgia border. In Habersham county, 24 homes and two businesses received minor to major damage. Numerous trees and power lines were also downed by tornadic winds. Habersham Emergency Management officials assessed storm damage to property at 155,000 dollars. In Stephens county, about 65 homes received major damage from trees downed by tornadic winds, another 22 received minor damage while 18 vehicles were either damaged or destroyed. Numerous trees were snapped off at about 20 feet from the base. Several roads, especially Georgia Highway 17 north of Toccoa, were blocked by tornado downed trees. Property damage was estimated at 350,000 dollars. Numerous power lines were downed over the northern half of Stephens county and over 4,000 electric customers had lost power for over 2 hours. Two injuries resulted from wind blown shattered glass.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 10318926. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.