Dougherty County officials are still in search and rescue mode after being hit by a tornado Sunday afternoon.
The storm, the second to hit Albany in a month, claimed four lives in the area of a mobile home park, and authorities are searching for a 2-year-old boy who went missing as the storm struck.
Paul Freeman, 82, and Oscar Reyna, 39, were identified as being among the dead. The identities of the two other victims have not yet been released.
But local enforcement agencies saved lives,Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas said.
On Monday, Cohilas went to survey the damage at a mobile home park that “doesn’t exist anymore.”
Cohilas said he asked a man whether he was at the trailer park when the storm hit. The man said no.
“He said, ‘Right before the tornado, a Dougherty County police officer drove into our neighborhood, got on a megaphone and said, ‘Get out.”
So the man got out, Cohilas said.
His mobile home was blown to pieces.
State resources, including the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Georgia Forestry Department, are working on relief efforts.
Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard said the aftermath of the recent storm is “mass devastation.”
"We are going to get through this,” Hubbard said. “We are a strong, faithful community.”
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