Tornado or Not, Vinings Hit Hard

The National Weather Service hasn’t confirmed that a tornado ripped through Vinings Friday night, but it sure looked like it off Mt. Wilkinson Parkway on Saturday morning where dozens and dozens of trees were uprooted or snapped in half.

“My buddy took a picture of a (cloud) funnel on the East-West Connector and I’m pretty sure something just touched down and popped this area and whacked all this,’’ said Rick Basich as he observed the destruction on and around the commercial office building he owns at 3290 Cumberland Club Drive.

The building, which Basich joked was “built like a bomb shelter,’’ suffered slight damage as several trees were resting on it Saturday. There have been no reported injuries in the Smyrna-Vinings area as a result of this most recent round of severe storms.

“I tell you what, I’m just glad it happened after hours when there wasn’t anyone in the building or in the parking lot,’’ Basich said.

At least two parked cars suffered extensive damage as numerous crews worked in the Mt. Wilkinson Parkway area to cut trees and remove debris. Not far away on Simpson Road off Spring Hill Road, a massive oak tree that was estimated by a neighbor in the lumber business to be between 100 and 120 years old was toppled and clipped the home belonging to Ken Suggs.

“It hit the house and did a little bit of damage to the roof and the air conditioner, but there wasn’t any leaking damage to the house,’’ said Suggs. “We feel fortunate.''

Maybe it wasn’t a tornado, but whatever it was that passed through the Smyrna-Vinings area Friday night, it left its mark and had people throughout the area playing cleanup on Saturday.

“I’m not a weather expect,’’ said certified arborist and 72 Tree Seed & Land owner J.D. Shamoun, who as he has been doing for 40 years was out Saturday helping cleanup after a storm. “It looks like straight line winds, maybe the tail of the tornado, but it was something fierce.’’