For many Georgia residents on the day after - time to count blessings while assessing the damage.

In communities south and southwest of Atlanta, to the northwest metro and closer-in, cleanup and recovery is well underway after multiple tornadoes rolled through the state Thursday afternoon.

“The majority of the northside and the west of town, it pretty much looks like a bomb went off,” Griffin city manager Jessica O’Conner tells WSB Radio.

The National Weather Service has determined it was an EF-3 twister that left its mark on Griffin and other parts of Spalding County, south of Atlanta. In all, GEMA officials say there were four tornado tracks that grinded through parts of the state. Friday night, the NWS officially confirmed at least four tornadoes.

“We are busy right now as a community trying to assess the damage,” said Troup County Commission chairman Patrick Crews Friday. He confirms lots of structural damage and damages to vehicles in his county.

The mayor pro-tem of Lagrange said 106 homes suffered some type of damage in his city, with dozens of those described as severe damage.

Big picture - there are two confirmed fatalities in Georgia from the severe storms: A five-year-old boy killed by a falling tree in Butts County, and a state Department of Transportation worker responding to damage.

A statewide ‘state of emergency’ remains in place for Georgia. Governor Brian Kemp says “all available state resources are going to support those responding” to the storms.

From James Stallings, GEMA director: “We’ve got families that seek shelter underneath their home and then the homes crumbled around them. So we had rescue teams out there trying to dig homes off of folks. We’ve got a lot of injuries.”

For Georgians affected by the severe storms and in need of counseling, there is help. You can call or text the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990.

©2023 Cox Media Group