ST. MARYS, Ga. — Tropical storm Elsa brought conditions that provoked tornadoes on the First Coast and South Georgia.
One tornado ripped through a strip of homes in St. Marys, bringing down dozens of trees with it.
“When this came through, I was sitting right here with the dog and cat,” said John Miller, pointing to a folding chair in his garage.
Miller was watching First Coast News and the areas Elsa was impacting, then he heard meteorologist Tim Deegan say there was a tornado near St. Marys.
“All of a sudden I felt like air was being pulled out,” John Miller said. “I got up, started going to the front [of the garage]. I turned around and looked and I couldn’t see anything. Just a haze of white.”
“What he was seeing was the bottom of the vortex, said Al Sandrik, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “ The suction as it came along.”
Sandrik estimates winds of about 120 miles per hour ripped through the Millers' property. He said John is very lucky.
“When everything cleared up, this is what I walked out to,” Miller said, motioning to about two dozen downed trees. “I think God was sitting in the golf cart beside me.”
Cedar trees were uprooted and birds were flattened by the tornado's power.
Power lines snapped, lining Miller’s front yard.
“We’re used to seeing this somewhere else,” Miller said. “You never think it could happen here.”
The Miller's home suffered some broken windows and its roof was damaged.
One small item was left intact.
“I said John look, the wreath is untouched,” said Kay Miller, John’s wife.
The wreath filled with sunflowers was made in memory of their daughter misty, who passed from cancer in 2006.
“The sunflower meant happiness for her,” Kay Miller said.
While branches were snapped and birds were destroyed, every petal on those sunflowers remained.
Kay Miller calls this a “God-wink.”
The Millers said, though seeing their three-generation property flattened is devastating, they still have what is important.
“We’re lucky to be here because it could have been a lot worse,” Miller said.
The Millers said FEMA came by their property today, and soon they will have some help moving all of the debris out so they can start anew.