The upturned bleachers lie in the third baseline on Thursday morning at the Murray County High School baseball field after strong storms hit the area on Wednesday. Below, the netting at the baseball field and wall were damaged in the storms.Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen

CHATSWORTH, Ga. — Murray County’s high school and middle school baseball teams need a new home for the next few weeks.

Strong storms and high winds that swept through the area Wednesday afternoon caused significant damage to the Murray County High School baseball field, forcing the teams to find other fields for practice and games. None of the other school athletic facilities were damaged.

No one was on the baseball field when the storms hit because Murray County Schools, like Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools, sent students and faculty home early on Wednesday. Dismissing students early and cancelling after-school activities was the right decision, said Greg Linder, the Murray County athletic director.

“When you see things like this, when you see the damage we have, if our kids had been on that outdoor facility where we have been practicing, it would have been a very scary place for them to be,” Linder said. “We’re very fortunate that we sent everybody home.”

Linder spent part of Thursday assessing the damage and determining how much repairs will cost.

The bleachers along the first base line were blown across the field to the third base line. A batting cage was wrapped around the centerfield fence. A building that houses a locker room was damaged. Most of the fencing around the baseball field will need to be replaced. The large cage that goes around home plate during batting practice was damaged. The playing field is in “pretty good shape,” Linder said.

Murray County head baseball coach Kim Alderdice said the support from the community and neighboring schools has been tremendous.

“We lost a lot of equipment, but the most important thing is nobody’s hurt,” he said. “The community was out that night picking up stuff, cleaning up stuff. We got calls from region coaches and other teams saying we can borrow their equipment or their fields. They’ve been great in offering their help.”

Alderdice added that some home and away games might need to be switched if the field remains unplayable for a couple weeks, but he said the situation is “up in the air right now.” He echoed Linder’s comments about the playing field being in good shape, noting the damage was mostly done to fences and equipment.

The high school doesn’t host another home game until March 16, but the middle school teams have home games scheduled before then. Linder said the high school and middle school teams will probably practice at the Murray County Recreation Department fields, and the middle school teams may play home games there.

“We’re going to have to make arrangements over the next couple of weeks until we get this straightened out,” Linder said. “Our goal is to host a (high school) ball game on March 16. That would be our goal, but if not we’ll try to figure out where else we might go and what we can do.”

Sports editor Tony Maluso contributed to this story.