Officials say a possible tornado struck the Georgia coast just east of Savannah on Friday afternoon.

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A funnel cloud was spotted on Whitemarsh Island Friday afternoon, but no injuries were reported. The Chatham County Emergency Management Agency is still assessing the damage, according to a news release.

News outlets report the storm damaged roofs at homes and a school, uprooted trees and knocked down power lines before heading offshore.

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The National Weather Service planned to send a team to the scene Saturday to confirm the intensity of the storm.

The local emergency management agency said no storm sirens were activated when the apparent tornado struck because the weather service had not issued any watches or warnings.

"Coastal tornadoes occur fairly often during the summer, but usually only last a few minutes at most," said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Belles. "They usually result from boundaries of wind from the ocean (the sea breeze) bouncing off itself or other boundaries.

"In this case, the formation of a tornado may also have been helped by a drooping lobe of the jet stream currently well established across the East Coast."