Thomasville, Area Residents Take Stock in Tornadoes' Wake (photos)

Last Thursday's tornadoes caused heavy damage to a mental hospital and two counties in southwest Georgia.

Red dots represent the tornadoes' damage track near Thomasville, Ga. Click image for larger graphic. (Courtesy: NOAA)

Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine visited and flew over areas hit by the twisters, and puts an over $10 million dollar price tag on the damage.

The tornadoes blew down two pine trees across this house off State Highway 319, south of Thomasville. Ga., in this photo taken on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009. (Photo courtesy Greg Miller)

He says he was surprised by the extent of the destruction, and adds that Thomas County sustained the greatest damage statewide:

"In Thomas and Grady County there were about 100 homes and other structures that were damaged by the two tornadoes that went through Thomas County, and there were about two dozen that were either destroyed or almost destroyed."

The storms wreaked havoc on Southwestern State mental Hospital in Thomasville. Officials, however, report no injuries.

The tornado demolished this enclosed corridor, "part of an old military barracks on the Southwestern State Hospital campus." (Photo: Teresa Williams/Thomasville Times-Enterprise)

Almost 160 patients remain hospitalized at the 420-bed center, although many have been moved to other facilities in Columbus and Milledgeville, for the interim.

Oxendine says his office hopes to meet with counterparts at the Department of Human Resources, who run Southwestern State, in coming days.

The storm's winds overturned this school bus, in the parking lot of the Brookwood school, Thomasville. Ga., in this photo taken on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009. The school sustained damage, but there were no injuries to students or staff, according to the photographer. (Photo courtesy Greg Miller)

Officials estimate the storm's effects statewide at upwards of $35 million dollars.

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Google street level map of Southwestern State Hospital at Thomasville, Ga.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of last week's storms.

Judge accepts insanity defense

A judge has accepted an alleged murderer's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. John Clayton Corley is accused of killing another man in 2007 when he opened fire on a neighboring house with an AK-47. A judge in Rome sentenced Corley to confinement in a state mental hospital, where he will likely stay for the rest of his life. Corley is also accused of permanently disabling a woman in that shooting. Her daughter testified that Corley doesn't deserve to live because her mother will never again be able to care for herself. The judge said Corley was not getting off easy and would be locked up for a long time.

(Associated Press)