JOHNSTON, S.C. - Jack-son Bush looked out of his home at about 1:30 a.m. Tues-day and couldn't believe it.
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"It was real bright and hazy-looking," said Mr. Bush, 59, a carpenter. "It didn't look like the middle of the night."
The tornado that blew over Mr. Bush's Park Street home in the Edgefield County town of Johnston also peeled the tin roof off the 100-year-old building that housed his carpentry shop and demolished a barber shop he was building.
"It looked like somebody picked it up, carried it 50 feet and just slapped it down," he said of the barber shop. "It was broken in two."
The early-morning storm was a harbinger of things to come for the Augusta area. By Tuesday night, the area had been assaulted by rain, flooded roads, downed trees, reports of funnel clouds and tornadoes, and severe thunderstorm watches and warnings.
Areas in South Carolina received the most damage - with two confirmed tornadoes - but no lives were lost and no injuries had been reported, authorities said Tuesday afternoon.
The brunt of the first wave of thunderstorms early Tuesday morning seemed to slam Johnston hardest. Weather experts said an F-1 tornado touched down briefly on the west end of town - almost five years to the day that a weak F-3 tornado ripped through town on the same path, Mayor Dean Campbell said.
Another F-1 tornado touched down on Interstate 20 near the 30 mile marker at about 2:30 a.m., said Steve Naglic, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
"I'll tell you one thing: It's a good thing that there weren't any vehicles going through there at that time," he said. "It did a tremendous amount of damage to the tree line."
The storms left about 150 to 200 residents without electricity, but power was restored by 10:30 a.m., said South Carolina Electric & Gas spokesman Brian Duncan.
Tuesday afternoon's storms also wreaked havoc in some South Carolina counties.
IN McCormick County, S.C., high winds clocked between 50 and 60 mph hit at about 3 p.m., according to Henry Deason, the county's emergency services director.
"I'm not aware of (a tornado) that has touched down at this time," Mr. Deason said. "I think maybe there were some that went over."
Winds were strongest at the northern end of the county, where roofs reportedly were blown off some houses, he said.
In Aiken County, about 1,800 people were without power Tuesday night, Mr. Duncan said. Most of those outages were in the Ridge Spring area, with other power failures in North Augusta, Batesburg-Leesville and Aiken.
The severe weather in Aiken began at 4:45 p.m. Left in the wake were uprooted trees in Vaucluse and Monetta, an Aiken County dispatcher said just before 5:30 p.m.
In Edgefield County, Mount Vintage Plantation Golf Club's course was evacuated at 4:45 p.m. near the end of the practice round, said Andrea Gunn, the course spokeswoman.
All activities are on schedule for today's events.
Before crossing the Savannah River, the storm system crashed through several Georgia counties.
In Wilkes County, the severe weather near Washington began at about 3 p.m. Tuesday with a National Weather Service tornado warning. A sheriff's office spokesman said Wilkes County sustained heavy rains and lightning, but there were no reports of a tornado. He said most of the damage was limited to downed trees.
In Lincoln County, Doppler radar indicated a thunderstorm with a tornado 6 miles west of Lincolnton moving toward the city at 30 mph at 3:30 p.m.
Lincoln County Emergency Services Deputy Director Mark Justice said that the county had thunderstorms, including golf ball-size hail.
"I haven't heard any reports of a tornado touchdown or structural damage," Mr. Justice said. "We've had three weather-related traffic accidents, but that's all I'm familiar with."
In Warren County, the storm slammed areas in the north but, as in Lincoln County, residents seem to have escaped serious damage.
"I haven't heard any reports of hail, just very dark clouds, winds and heavy rain," said John Graham, the chairman of the county commission.
In Columbia County, there were sporadic power and cable outages as the storm moved through the Martinez and Evans area shortly after 5 p.m. There were reports of a funnel cloud in Winfield on Georgia Highway 150 near the McDuffie County line, said emergency services Director Pam Tucker.
Mrs. Tucker said the good news for area residents is the brunt of severe weather season is wrapping up.
"March through May are the peak months for severe weather because warm Southern air combines with cold Northern air," she said. "It is just the right combination for severe thunderstorms, lightning and weather."
Forecasts call for possible thunderstorms and rain through Friday, but not to the extent of spawning tornadoes. Still, more rain creates problems for emergency officials.
"With all the rain we have had and as saturated as the ground is, a couple of inches of rain can cause flash floods in low areas," Mrs. Tucker said.
In McDuffie County, emergency dispatchers said the storms did little damage, but there were reports of golf ball-size hail along Highway 43.
The weather was bad enough to lead organizers to cancel a performance of the U.S. Army Signal Corps band at the Watson-Brown Foundation in Thomson. Foundation Executive Director Mary Anne Coussons said late Tuesday she was working to reschedule the event.
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Jackson Bush looks over the remains of a barber shop in Johnston, S.C., that was hit by a tornado Tuesday morning.
RON COCKERILLE/STAFF
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In Richmond County, Herb Beckham noticed that the storm was bad when he looked out of his living room window Tuesday afternoon. Then a tree came through the roof, landing just a few feet away from where he was sitting at about 5:30 p.m.
"It came through like something in one of those disaster movies," said Mr. Beckham, a former Richmond County commissioner.
An hour later, while he and his family surveyed the damage in the living room as disaster cleanup crews removed the tree, a plank from the attic fell to the floor.
"We've been here for two years, and we've never seen anything like this before," Mr. Beckham said.
Staff Writers Valerie Rowell, Donnie Fetter, Sara Bancroft, Jim Nesbitt, Josh Gelinas, Jeremy Craig and Jason Smith contributed to this article.
