Survey crews with the National Weather Service have confirmed with WXIA-TV that the storm that struck Bartow County early Monday morning was a minimal EF-1 tornado with maximum sustained winds of 85-to-90 mph.
34-year-old William McConnell was killed when a tree fell onto a home on Fite Street in Cartersville as a result of that particular storm cell.
A tornado warning was issued for Bartow County at 1:02 a.m. However, the Emergency Weather Alert Sirens were not set off. Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap said that a supervisor within Bartow E-911 did not turn on the sirens. He said the matter has been handled internally and will not happen again.
WBHF helped with this report.
