Hail, high winds, and heavy rain ripped through Rabun County Saturday evening, but that didn’t stop the double-feature at the Tiger Drive-In.
At 8:30 p.m. vehicles were packed into the outdoor movie theater, as people inside them watched Dr. Doolittle on the big outdoor screen.
Just an hour earlier, things didn’t look so good for the business with the tag line “First run movies under the stars.” There were no stars out last night as severe weather bore down on the classic drive-in.
“The floors and walls were rumbling and shaking like I’ve never felt before.”
After a strong storm cell developed over Fannin and Lumpkin counties Saturday around 6:15 p.m., the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a tornado watch for parts of North Georgia. The watch area included Rabun County as well as neighboring Habersham, White, and Stephens. Before sunset, forecasters detected wind rotation on radar, and NWS issued two tornado warnings for Rabun County.
It was “scary for a short time,” says Tiger Drive-In owner Tom Major. Workers “told customers to get in their cars and it was over just before the movie started.”
Scary is how many people in Rabun County described Saturday night’s weather.
Rabun Search and Rescue posted a picture taken by Clayton Police Sgt. Travis Gibson of an ominous-looking cloud in the sky above police station (see above). Others described the scene just before the severe weather hit.
“The air became still on Mellie Keener (Persimmon), the sky turned yellow, leaves were swirling overhead and then 1/2 inch hail started followed by tremendous rain. Thankful that one is over,” shared Gail Allgood on Facebook.
After passing through Tiger and Clayton, the storms continued northeast into Mountain City. “The floors and walls were rumbling and shaking like I’ve never felt before,”
wrote Alyshia Justus on Facebook.
Farther north, at an RV resort off of Yorkhouse Road, Shane Williams reported hail busted a hole in the roof of his camper.
Rabun Search and Rescue says there were no injuries and “very little damage” as a result of the storms.
After passing through Rabun, the storms prompted tornado warnings in Oconee and Pickens counties in South Carolina. Around 9 p.m., severe weather hit Greenville County and then Spartanburg.
As storms passed over the National Weather Service office in Greenville-Spartanburg, the meteorologists there had to take cover. Responsibility for issuing severe weather warnings temporarily shifted to a neighboring office.
The storms caused significant damage in Greenville County and caused widespread power outages.
This weekend’s storms mark the second severe system to pass through Northeast Georgia and the Upstate in the past two weeks. On April 13, a tornado damaged homes and businesses in southern Habersham County and also touched down in Stephens County.
Later, the same cell dropped an EF3 tornado in Seneca, South Carolina, that resulted in significant damage and one fatality.
The outbreak of tornados that stretched across the South on Easter weekend killed at least 33 people, including seven in Georgia and nine in South Carolina.
This article has been updated with additional information
