On This Day in 1975: The Governors Tornado
Tornadoes are among the most destructive natural disasters on the planet. This was on full display nearly 50 years ago today when a powerful twister, known as the “Governors Tornado”, whipped through Atlanta during the morning rush hour, claiming three lives and injuring 152 people. During its journey, it caused significant damage to the Georgia governor’s mansion.
The F3 tornado was one of several spawned in the South on March 24, 1975 when a rapidly moving cold front extended out from a deep closed low over Iowa and moved into northern Alabama. A severe squall line was located ahead of the front across the extreme northwest edge of Georgia. The strong southerly flow of warm moist air produced scattered thunderstorms out ahead of the squall line, which included a tornadic supercell, as it moved northeastward toward Atlanta.
Morning commuters first spotted the tornado around 7:30 a.m., nearly five miles southwest of the downtown business district. It touched down in a housing development known as Perry Homes, then bounced up after leaving at least 100 of the 1,100 apartments there damaged. A small shopping center was destroyed as well. Next, the twister wreaked havoc on an industrial area, toppling trucks and shearing off the roofs of warehouses and other businesses. From there, it flattened two large apartment complexes, several other businesses, and hundreds of “fine homes” before eventually lifting and dissipating over the Buckhead district of north Atlanta.
The twister extensively damaged Georgia's $1.4 million governor's antebellum style mansion, blowing off the roof and knocking down all the front columns. During the storm, Gov. George Busbee was forced to flee to safety in the center section of the palatial brick structure. The mansion sat roughly midway on the 15‐mile‐long path of destruction wreaked by the tornado in less than 15 minutes. In some places, the path was more than a quarter of a mile wide.
In the end, the twister crossed through the northwest side of the city, dipping down at least half a dozen times while tracking eastwardly across both low‐income and wealthy sections of northern Atlanta. The estimated damage by today’s currency is valued at $276-million.
The tornado proved to be historic but not unprecedented as there have been 5 tornadoes recorded within the present day city limits of Atlanta, Georgia since 1884. The tornado did miss the most condensed portions of downtown Atlanta, so despite it causing significant damage, several deaths and dozens of injuries, the aftermath could have been much worse had it hit areas with higher density of structures and population.
Image Credit: Atlanta Journal Constitution Photographic Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.