A tornado tore through north Lowndes and Lanier counties Saturday, destroying homes, damaging a hospital in Lakeland and leaving people homeless.

The first report of the tornado’s touchdown came at 1 p.m., said Parks Camp, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee office. It touched down a mile or two north of Moody Air Force Base, tore through the Walker’s Crossing area and headed for Lakeland, Camp said.

Lowndes County is still working on assessing the damage, but there were no significant injuries reported, said Paige Dukes, the county’s public information officer. A preliminary assessment by Lowndes County Fire-Rescue shows 15 homes severely damaged and uninhabitable, another 10 with moderate damage and five with minor damage, she said.

The tornado caused light damage to Louis Smith Memorial Hospital in Lakeland and the nearby Lakeland Villa Convalescent Center, according to a press release from South Georgia Medical Center, which owns and operates the Lakeland hospital.

“Luckily, everyone is safe,” said Louis Smith Administrator Neil Ginty. “We put our emergency operations plan into effect and moved patients and staff to areas of safety.  It appears the bulk of the damage occurred behind the hospital.”

Upon inspection, outbuildings, including the Emergency Medical Services trailer, the materials management building, some awnings and other structures were damaged or destroyed.

“We are operating on generator power, but Georgia Power tells us that power will be restored this evening.  At this time, we do not anticipate evacuating any patients or residents of the nursing home,” Ginty said.

SGMC sent EMS crews and maintenance and security staff to Louis Smith Memorial to assist.

 “We appreciate everyone’s cooperation as we deal with this situation,” Ginty concludes.  “We are blessed to have no injuries or fatalities here.”

In Lowndes County, several roads, including Beatty Mill Creek Road, Williams Road, Upper New Bethel Road and Quarterman Road were closed due to water over the road or downed power lines, Dukes said.

The weather service is sending a team out today to assess the damage and determine the strength of the tornado, Camp said. Dukes said the official determination as to whether it was a tornado that moved through would depend on the weather service’s survey.

Camp said the only

other tornado activity

reported in the region Saturday was near Decatur, Ga.

Ryan Hollis, who lives on Cat Creek Road in north Lowndes, knew there was a problem when the rain stopped and the skies turned pitch black.

“We were expecting something,” because family living in Alabama got the rough weather first, he said.

The tornado touched down in a field behind the Hollis’ house, he said.

Hollis and his wife “hunkered down” in the bathroom to ride out the storm. When the weather passed, they found a tree across the top of their house, damaging the roof. Hollis said they would try to stick it out in their house for right now.

On Beatty Mill Creek Road near Arapaho Trail, Angus Watson had just left his mobile home to go to the post office when the twister tore through, flipping the mobile home over. Watson said he had already found a place to stay for the moment.

Nearby, W.H. Peters’ home, which he built more than 10 years ago, was in the tornado’s path.

Peters, his nephew and a friend were in the house at the time.

“I was eating a hamburger, and it came up so fast it blew the hamburger out of my hand,” Peters said.

His nephew took refuge in the bathroom while Peters and his friend huddled by the refrigerator.

The twister shredded Peters’ house. He said he would be staying with his sisters for the time being.

In Lakeland, Jason Sapp went out on his front porch at 21 Pine Street Ext., a block from Louis Smith Memorial Hospital, and noticed the strong winds. He quickly went back inside his home to grab his wife, Pam, and one of their children. He then went to grab his second child but that child was frozen with fear, so everyone just dropped where they were. Just then, the walls and roof blew off the home. No one was injured.

Times photographer Paul Leavy contributed to this story.

For more on this story and other local news, subscribe to The Valdosta Daily Times e-Edition, or our print edition.