On November 7th, storms rolled through parts of Central Georgia.
These storms painted a terrifying picture for Danielle Richardson, who was driving on lower Hartley Road that evening.
"The wind was going, it was moving my car, so I slammed on my brakes, turned my flashers on, waiting for someone to rear end me, and then my car, then the back end just started moving," Richardson explained.
Richardson says she never heard an alarm, and Joey Fernandez, who we spoke with last week, said the alarm sounded after the storm rolled through.
“The tornado calmed down or left, (and) that’s when we started to hear the sirens, the tornado alarms," Fernandez said.
So what really happened?
"What happened with this one is it very quickly turned from a thunderstorm into a tornado," Bibb County Emergency Management Director Spencer Hawkins said.
Hawkins says this tornado took everyone who is normally geared up and ready to go by surprise.
“Usually, we will see a tornado watch first that will last several hours, and then within that watch, we will find a warning that pops up."
That statement can be verified. There was never a tornado watch issued.
According to the National Weather Service, the first severe thunderstorm warning was issued at 5:24 p.m. for Bibb County. At 5:40 p.m., the first tornado warning, not watch, was issued for central Bibb and northern Twiggs Counties.
According to the National Weather Service’s survey the day after the event, the tornado touched down some time around 5:35 p.m., and the warning was at 5:40 p.m. That is when Hawkins was first aware of the tornado and sounded the alarm a few minutes after.
Hawkins says confirmation is necessary since we have so many thunderstorms in Central Georgia.
“We want to make sure if we are notifying people about a dangerous situation that the situation is accurate, and once I verified the information was correct, which took a couple of minutes, we alarmed the sirens," Hawkins explained.
So it’s verified -- the sirens did go off, but not when the tornado reportedly first touched down.
“Because this was such a fast-moving storm, it is entirely possible that when the sirens went off, the storm already passed some folks in the county," Hawkins said.
Both Hawkins and our 13WMAZ weather team want to remind you, it is extremely important to have more than one way to receive weather warnings.
The tornado alarms are meant for people outdoors to hear and take shelter. It is crucial to have other alert systems such as a weather radio and the 13WMAZ app.
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