Dangerous weather slammed most of the Southeast again on Wednesday, threatening tornadoes well into the evening — and canceling the Masters’ opening day for the first time ever.
“We share in the disappointment of our patrons, but the safety of everyone on our grounds is always our primary concern,” Billy Payne, chairman of the Masters golf tournament, said after players were ordered off the course in Augusta, Georgia.
The traditional Wednesday pre-Masters Par-3 Contest had never before been called off in its 56-year history.
The cancellation (which wiped out Mike Weir’s hole-in-one on the fourth hole) was forced by a strong severe weather system that left a huge area under tornado watches or warnings until at least 10 p.m. ET, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
The advisories stretched from the Florida panhandle across almost all of Alabama, Georgia and both Carolinas, and into parts of Tennessee and Kentucky and even to southern Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.
A large tornado southeast of Columbus, Georgia, damaged three structures in the nearby towns of Weston and Benevolence, the National Weather Service said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
“This was a long-track tornado,” said Ari Sarsalari, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. “We’ve got a lot of reports of wind damage.”
A suspected tornado touched down Wednesday in Henry County, Alabama, downing trees and shattering small structures before crossing into Georgia, the National Weather Service said. Meanwhile, another suspected tornado damaged multiple homes in Walton County, northeast of Atlanta, it said.
A ground stop was issued for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Wednesday because of weather. The Federal Aviation Administration-issued order was later lifted, but the airport said delays continued. Nearly 700 departing and arriving flights were canceled, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
The University of South Carolina in Columbia, the state capital, closed early Wednesday afternoon as intense rain flooded major intersections, many of which were blocked with barricades.
No weather-related deaths were reported, but three people were injured by lightning in Navarre, Florida, about 15 miles east of Pensacola. Their conditions weren’t immediately reported.
The National Weather Service said the dangerous weather would continue into Thursday morning, when a strong cold front is expected to clear out the storm system.
“Don’t let your guard down if you live in Alabama, especially eastern Alabama, [through] Atlanta,” Sarsalari said. “Those storms are also going to have the ability of producing some tornadoes, certainly some hail and some big-time wind.”
