MLILY Mattresses Near Me Macon, GA

Michael Dorough was arrested Tuesday for sexual assault and child cruelty. POST records show a 2024 domestic dispute and a 36-month probation for his certification.

MACON, Ga. — Michael Dorough, a former Bibb County deputy, was arrested Tuesday on multiple charges while on duty at the Bibb County Jail. Authorities say Dorough faces sexual assault, first-degree cruelty to children, and influencing witnesses.

He is currently being held at the Hall County Jail.

Authorities also arrested Dorough’s wife, Ashley Dorough, who is charged with first-degree cruelty to children and influencing witnesses. She is being held in the Jones County jail.

Even though the current charges are separate, state certification records from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, POST, the state agency that certifies and oversees law enforcement officers, show Dorough was previously investigated after a domestic dispute in 2024.

According to reports, the 2024 dispute occurred on March 11, 2024, after Dorough and his wife decided to separate and argued over personal belongings. During the argument, his stepson confronted him, telling him not to put his hands on his mother.

That led to a physical altercation on the back porch. Dorough told investigators the stepson lunged at him and said he restrained him without striking anyone.

The battery charge related to the 2024 dispute was later dismissed on June 25, 2024, after the stepson declined to prosecute. Following that, Dorough completed an anger management course as part of the process.

POST reviewed the 2024 dispute and placed Dorough on a 36-month probation tied to his law enforcement certification beginning Oct. 23, 2025. The state agency said he was allowed to remain certified but under supervision.

POST records also detail prior issues throughout Dorough’s law enforcement career:

Authorities said Dorough is no longer employed with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.

A volatile stretch of weather swept across Central Georgia early Thursday, putting Macon-area viewers on alert as 13WMAZ weather coverage followed tornado warnings, a broader tornado watch, and school delays tied to the storm line moving across the region.

The most immediate danger centered on the morning hours, when warnings were issued for multiple Central Georgia counties and the threat briefly included Macon-Bibb and nearby communities. By later in the morning, the line of storms had pushed east and the highest tornado risk had started to ease, though rain, gusty wind and scattered disruptions lingered.

Tornado Warnings Put Macon and Nearby Counties on Edge

The sharpest concern came as tornado warnings were issued in several counties across Central Georgia, including areas around Macon. Local live coverage focused on Bibb, Jones, Houston, Laurens and surrounding counties as storms moved through before and around the morning commute.

In weather terms, a warning is the most urgent alert residents receive short of a tornado emergency. It signals that rotation has been detected or that a storm capable of producing a tornado is moving through a defined area. That distinction mattered Thursday morning, when alerts shifted quickly from county to county as the storm line advanced east.

For people searching terms such as “tornado warning Macon GA,” the answer for much of the early morning was straightforward: the threat was real, active, and changing fast enough that residents needed to keep checking updated radar and local alerts.

13WMAZ Weather Became a Key Local Hub

Search interest around “13WMAZ weather,” “wmaz weather,” and “13 wmaz weather” reflected how many people in Central Georgia turned to familiar local coverage as conditions worsened before sunrise.

The station carried rolling updates as warnings were issued and expired, helping viewers follow the storm track county by county. That kind of coverage becomes especially important in fast-moving severe weather, when the practical questions are immediate: which communities are in the warning polygon, how long the threat may last, and whether the worst part of the line has already passed.

In Macon, the station’s weather reporting also served a second function beyond tornado tracking. It gave residents a clearer sense of when conditions were expected to improve after the most dangerous cells moved through, a crucial detail for schools, employers and families deciding whether to delay travel.

Why the Threat Was Higher Before Daybreak

The broader setup over Georgia supported damaging wind, heavy rain, small hail and the possibility of brief spin-up tornadoes. A tornado watch covered a wide portion of central and west-central Georgia early Thursday, then was adjusted eastward as storms progressed.

That pattern is typical of a fast-moving spring severe weather event in the Southeast. A strong line of thunderstorms along a cold front can produce short-lived but dangerous tornadoes with limited lead time, especially in the pre-dawn hours when visibility is poor and many people are still asleep.

For Macon-area residents, that combination made the storm particularly disruptive. Even where tornado warnings expired without confirmed major damage, the broader risk from intense thunderstorm winds and sudden downpours was enough to alter morning routines and keep emergency managers, school systems and broadcasters on alert.

School Delays and Morning Impacts Spread Across Central Georgia

The weather was serious enough to trigger school delays and schedule changes across parts of Central Georgia. That gave the storm a broader public impact beyond the warning text itself.

In practical terms, Thursday morning became less about whether every neighborhood would see tornado damage and more about how institutions responded to a live severe weather threat moving across a wide area. Delayed openings, sheltered students, and cautious commuting decisions are often the first visible signs of how disruptive a tornado warning morning can be, even when the storm moves out relatively quickly.

That also helps explain why search traffic often clusters around local TV weather brands during events like this. Residents are not just looking for a forecast; they are trying to answer immediate questions about roads, schools, timing and safety.

What Macon Weather Looks Like After the Storm Line

As the line pushed east later Thursday morning, conditions in Macon began trending away from the peak tornado threat. The day was still expected to hold unsettled periods, but the most dangerous window appeared tied to the earlier passage of severe storms.

That shift matters for readers searching “Macon GA weather” after the warnings. The headline danger was concentrated in the morning, not as an all-day tornado emergency. Even so, any leftover showers, gusty wind and isolated thunder remained worth watching until the system fully cleared the region.

For Central Georgia, Thursday’s weather served as a reminder of how quickly March storms can change from routine rain to warning-level danger. In Macon, the storm threat may have eased as the morning wore on, but the burst of tornado alerts and live wall-to-wall tracking had already made it one of the region’s most closely watched weather events of the day.

The National Weather Service confirms two EF-1 and one EF-2 tornadoes hit Central Georgia, causing extensive damage in several counties.

MACON, Ga. — The National Weather Service has assessed the damage and determined that two EF-1 tornadoes and one EF-2 tornado struck Central Georgia during severe storms on Thursday morning.

Crews with the National Weather Service were dispatched to Macon County, Macon-Bibb County, and Peach/Houston Counties to survey the damage and determine the strength of the tornadoes.

The tornadoes in Macon-Bibb and Houston Counties were EF-1 tornadoes, which both had wind speeds up to 100 miles per hour. The Macon County tornado was more severe, with estimated wind speeds of 112 mph, making it an EF-2 tornado.

Here's what the National Weather Service found regarding the tornadoes, their paths, and their severity.

A tornado struck western Macon County just west of Bryant Hill Road at around 6:40 a.m., moving through large pecan orchards where it uprooted and snapped multiple trees, according to the National Weather Service.

They say the storm quickly reached its maximum intensity as it approached Sleepy Hollow Road, where it struck a mobile home community, leaving devastating damage.

Two people were hurt when a home was flipped and destroyed, and one resident was thrown 40 feet by the tornado when their home was destroyed.

In total, the surveyors found that four mobile homes were destroyed, one was overturned, and many others were damaged.

The NWS says the tornado continued to move towards Highway 49, snapping and uprooting trees, and ripping the roofs off two large silos.

The tornado would lift off north of Juice Plant Road just east of County Road 116, which marked a length of 4.81 miles. The tornado is estimated to have been 600 yards wide.

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Touching down just west of Highway 74 or Mercer University Drive, an EF-1 tornado with 100 mph winds struck Macon-Bibb at around 6:45 a.m. Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Surveyors found the tornado struck near Windy Hill Drive, uprooting and snapping trees, before continuing east and crossing Mercer University Drive, and causing similar damage.

It then entered a neighborhood along McCleary Lane and Lochewolde Drive, where multiple homes suffered damage.

The surveyors found severe damage ranging from broken windows, garage doors flying off, portions of roofs removed, and entire sections of shingles being removed.

Once it left that neighborhood, it then continued east into Tucker Road, snapping and uprooting trees.

A large electrical transmission pole was knocked over and bent across the road, which closed the roads during the morning commute.

While that would have typically indicated a stronger storm, the weather service says the damage was determined to be caused by a large tree falling over, causing the collapse.

The tornado then crossed I-475 and entered North Mumford Road and continued until it got to Wolf Creek, lifting off as it approached the Highlands community near Payne City. In total, the weather service believes the path of the storm was 3.39 miles with an estimated width of 200 yards.

The tornado first touched down in Peach County just south of Georgia State Route 96 and west of Lakeview Drive at around 6:56 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Surveyors say the storm snapped and uprooted trees as it moved east, with several homes along Lakeview Drive suffering damage from falling trees. One home also had its garage door blown in, along with siding and shingle damage.

According to the National Weather Service, the tornado then crossed Interstate-75, where additional trees were snapped and uprooted. Several metal buildings just east of the interstate also sustained damage.

As it tracked east-northeast across Highway 96, multiple power poles were snapped along the south side of the highway, while numerous trees were damaged north of the road. Several structures in that area also suffered damage, including portions of roofs being removed, broken windows, and doors blown in.

The tornado continued east along Highway 96, snapping and uprooting trees before crossing Brantley Ridge, where it began to weaken.

The storm eventually lifted before reaching Lake Joy Road in Houston County. Surveyors estimate the tornado traveled 3.3 miles and reached a maximum width of 350 yards.

What has now been confirmed as a tornado collapsed a fence, flipped a camper on its side, downed a huge pine tree across the middle of an RV, crashed another tree on top of a pickup truck and knocked out power at the Ponderosa RV Park off Ga. 96 in Peach County early Thursday.

“Probably about 6:30 this morning, the wind started blowing, and we heard like a roar go over the house, and then everything just started,” said Donna Bryant as she drove a golf cart around the property pointing out damage later that afternoon.

Silver awning ripped away by the storm could be seen wrapped around a telephone pole and in tree branches. Debris was piled up. A man was loading cut logs from downed trees into a pickup bed.

Bryant and her husband, Randy, own the RV park that’s been in his family for 53 years. They live in a house on site.

“It was a blessing that no one was hurt,” Donna Bryant said.

The owner of the overturned camper, now draped in blue tarp, had already left for work before the storm hit, as had most of the park residents, Bryant said.

The whole incident lasted five minutes as tornado sirens blared one after another across Middle Georgia when the severe storm system swept through.

The Bryants had to wait for daylight to start assessing the damage, which also included the roof of the park’s restrooms.

At about 7:15 a.m., as soon as it started getting light, Fort Valley firefighters, police officers, first responders and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials were on site, Bryant said.

Public safety crews cleared one of the roads so that people could get into the park and start cleaning up multiple downed trees, she said.

“They say it was straight line winds, but our neighbor right across from us, the way it twisted the trees, he said it was probably a tornado with straight line winds. But FEMA said it was straight line winds,” Bryant said.

What was thought to have been straight line winds early Thursday has since been confirmed as a tornado by the National Weather Service, Peach County EMA Director Ryan Roberts said late Thursday afternoon.

The tornado touched down on Lakeview Drive and traveled about a mile along Ga. 96 until U.S. 41, damaging the mobile home park, the irrigation system at Super Sod, a packing shed, homes, and vehicles in its path, Roberts said.

The tornado also overturned a tractor-trailer on Interstate 75 at Mile Marker 142 at the Ga. 96 exit, Roberts said. The driver escaped with only minor injuries, Roberts said.

No other injuries were reported, he said.

Rob Rabun, owner of All American Junk Removal in Warner Robins, was driving by when he saw the damage at the Ponderosa RV Park.

“I looked over there and saw all the debris and all the people over there working,” Rabun said. “I went home, hooked up my trailer and went out there to assist.”

Rabun helped pick up and haul away debris — all free of charge. He was among a host of other good Samaritans and neighbors who pitched in and helped with the cleanup.

“People have been coming in and helping,” said Bryant, who was grateful for the assistance.

The Ponderosa RV Park at 13841 Ga. 96 is just east of Interstate 75 near the city limits of Warner Robins.