Tornado Down: Twister rips through Berrien, Lanier counties

Published 2:55 pm Thursday, April 9, 2020

VALDOSTA — A tornado that tore across Berrien and Lanier counties Wednesday evening damaged buildings and left a family homeless, but no injuries or deaths were reported, according to authorities.

The twister touched down near Ray City at 8:23 p.m., said Mark Wool, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s office in Tallahassee, Fla.

“Several homes and businesses were damaged,” Berrien County Sheriff Ray Paulk said.

One family on Mill Pond Road was displaced when a falling tree severely damaged their house, forcing them to stay with relatives, he said.

The Jesus Loves Me Daycare on Pauline Avenue suffered extensive damage, said Sandra Cersey, the owner.

“The building took the brunt of the force, and protected a neighborhood right behind it,” she said. 

The tornado tore the roof off and heavily damaged the interior, she said.

The daycare had been closed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Cersey said. Normally, the school serves about 100 children from several counties, including Lanier, Berrien, Cook and Lowndes, she said.

“We will rebuild, we will reopen,” Cersey said. “Things can be replaced; I’m just glad everybody’s safe.”

The storm plowed its way through to Lakeland, where lots of trees were downed and there was structural damage to homes, Lanier County Sheriff Nick Norton said. Deputies worked until midnight clearing roads, and power was still out to some residents as late as Thursday morning, Norton said.

Southside Baptist Church on U.S. 221 suffered minor damage, including a broken steeple, damage to a roadside marquee, hail damage to the air-conditioning unit and a cargo trailer that was thrown from the parking lot into a field next door, said Kyle Sirmans, the church’s campus pastor.

Like the daycare, the church building had been closed due to the pandemic, and services were being held online, he said.

The tornado was last seen on radar near Lakeland at 8:45 p.m., Wool said; however, there was a report of a funnel cloud that didn’t touch down in Clinch County near DuPont a few minutes later, said Scott Cardero, meteorologist in charge at the weather service’s Jacksonville, Fla., office.

A weather service team will examine the area around the tornado’s path to determine its strength, Wool said.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.