Atlanta tornado costs city $150 million

ATLANTA (AP) - Officials in Georgia are asking people who work in downtown Atlanta to take the day off.

City officials continue to clean up areas trashed by Friday's tornado. Many streets are still closed and some 150 traffic lights remain out.

They're urging people to work from home if they can or take a comp day.

Atlanta police say workers may want to take off tomorrow as well. But if that's not possible, they're advising drivers to be polite and have patience.

Several landmarks, including the Georgia World Congress Center, the Westin Peachtree Plaza and the Equitable Building, were in the six-mile path of the storm, which moved along the Atlanta skyline for about 20 minutes. The city's main convention center and two major hotels were hobbled as the convention season began.

This weekend alone, the city lost the Atlanta Home Show, a dental convention and the much of the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament.

At least two people died Saturday as wave after wave of dangerous thunderstorms pounded northern Georgia, including the metropolitan Atlanta area, still reeling from a tornado that sliced through the downtown area a day before.

A woman died and her husband was seriously injured when a tornado leveled their home in the Live Oak community, just north of Aragon, Polk County officials said. Aragon is about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Aragon police were looking for damage when they found the house about 12:30p.m., Polk County Police Chief Kenneth Dodd said. The brick and frame
home was leveled.

The husband was taken to a Rome, Georgia, hospital, Dodd said.

Five dead dogs were found in a nearby field, and other injured animals were taken to an animal control agency, he said.

A second person died and two others were injured about seven miles southeast of Lindale, in the Wax community in Floyd County, when a possible tornado struck about 4:30 p.m., said Scotty Hancock, the county emergency management director.

Storms killed one person Saturday in northwest Georgia, less than 24 hours after a tornado with wind up to 130 mph cut a 6-mile path through downtown Atlanta, blowing windows out of skyscrapers and injuring dozens.

More thunderstorms headed across northern Alabama toward the city Saturday. "We're bracing for another round of whatever mother nature throws at us," said Lisa Janak of the state emergency management agency.

A tornado touched down Saturday in Polk County on the Alabama line, killing one person, Janak said. She had no other details, and the National Weather Service had not confirmed the second tornado.

At least 27 people were hurt Friday night, though no injuries were believed to be life-threatening.