In southern Georgia, several wildfires have destroyed homes and forced evacuations. Mark Strassmann reports from the disaster zone, and Rob Marciano has the forecast.
– We turn now to the wildfires in Georgia, now just 15% contained. And what about how they started? We’ve got new information on at least one of them. Our senior national correspondent, Mark Strassmann, is in the disaster zone with the latest. Mark, good evening to you.
– Good evening, Tony. I want to show you this car lot. More than a hundred older cars, and it’s a total loss. Every day is a wild card with these wildfires, which have already burned more homes than any fire in Georgia history.
In rural south Georgia, winds keep shifting this wildfire’s front line. New fires sparked overnight. Walls of flame shot 50 feet high. 120 homes gone in two wildfires.
This calamity had a random spark.
– We believe it was started by a balloon landing on a power line causing an arc that created the fire.
MARK STRASSMANN: That fire took Anna and Scott Dudek’s house.
– We started gathering things up, watching the fire literally on our property headed right for the house.
MARK STRASSMANN: They saw flames coming and fled with four kids and 10 dogs to Florida. In the car, she watched their home burn on her phone.
You have Ring cameras in the house, and you were watching?
– When both of my devices were offline and it was black and I couldn’t see no more, it was so gut wrenching because then I knew they got what I call home.
MARK STRASSMANN: Everyone here is looking for a spark of hope.
– I’m down, but I’m not out.
MARK STRASSMANN: We met Jesse Morgan at his ravaged automotive business. He started it in 1996. 30 years up in flames. He told us his insurance denied his claim. Acts of God aren’t covered.
– I definitely could use some help, but I’m– I guess my pride is too much. I’m not going to get out there and ask for it.
MARK STRASSMANN: In all their loss, the Dudeks also feel lucky.
– You can always rebuild stuff, but you can’t rebuild family.
– And the Dudeks told us right now that they’re leaning on their faith. They hope to be back here this weekend to see their house in person and to figure out next steps. Tony.
– We wish them the best. Mark, thank you very much.
Let’s bring in meteorologist Rob Marciano, who’s tracking the possibility of rain for that wildfire zone and also a new tornado threat tonight in the heartland. Rob, how’s it looking?
– Well, it’s that same system, Tony. What’s in the Midwest will bring a little bit of rain to the Southeast, but right now, it’s bringing a load of severe weather again. We had a confirmed tornado in southern Oklahoma and winds to over 70 miles an hour near Indianapolis.
So, really, a lot of active weather right now. Warnings still up there in Indy, and we’ve got a watch that’s across north Texas and southern Oklahoma until 9 o’clock tonight. So that’s tonight.
Tomorrow, we’ve got another like a double whammy. Tomorrow, another round across Texas. And then on Sunday, another round across the northern side. So we’ll split it in half, but all hazards are in play here for both Saturday and Sunday from Dallas all the way to Omaha, Nebraska, and then sliding all east on Monday, with damaging winds and tornadoes potentially from St. Louis to Peoria, potentially into Chicago as well.
As the system moves off towards the east, we are looking for a little bit of rainfall. A little bit across the Southeast, likely less than a half an inch. We would take that, certainly. And heavier rains coming here to the Northeast for a bit of a soggy Saturday night into Sunday morning. Tony.
– All right, Rob, thank you very much.