The Aftermath of a Tornado

Yesterday we had the chance to view some of the areas that were in the tornado path through southern Georgia. Over the years we have had the chance to live in various places, both here in the US and overseas. We have lived with complete snow caused shutdowns in Virginia and Ohio, fire threatened areas in California, and flash flood prone sections of Arizona and Texas. But, we have never lived in an area that was in a "tornado alley"....thus this is the first time that I have ever seen first hand the damage from a tornado....and it was almost shocking. When you see it on the news, you see the devastation and hear the families talk about how they lost their homes and belongings and in some cases family members...but to see it first hand is another experience. And, to see it from a real estate point of view is also astonishing, for not only do you have to re-build, but there is an entire process of demolition and removal that is both time and money consuming.

We heard of various areas where the tornados, and apparently there were a number of them spawned over a 12 hour period that moved from eastern Alabama into southern Georgia, and decided to see for ourselves the damage. In Griffin, about 10 miles from where Carrie lives, and a relatively large rural county seat, the tornado moved from west to east in about a 1/4 mile wide span in semi built up areas of farms, homes, and commercial areas located about 2 miles south of the Atlanta Motor Speedway. This particular storm area was the one that we drove through in the early morning hours after arriving late at the Atlanta airport, where we encountered downed trees and power lines and homes crushed by falling trees, but could not see the extent of the damage due to darkness. What we saw yesterday was along Highway 19 and extended from collapsed and crush commercial warehouse areas to a mobile home park with various degrees of total damage. Roofs were completely ripped off and scattered along the debris filled highway. I got a video of folks walking through the remains of what were office buildings and shops, with nothing but debris and trash left. Just amazing.
We continued on with our other activities for the afternoon and then we heard about some of the other areas, where a complete subdivision south of Griffin was hit, and had since been closed off, and the stories continued. The storm had really taken its toll....property and lives lost over a couple of hours due to a storm that no one has any control over. A new experience for me...and a new appreciation for what I will see in the future on the news shows, for we just saw the real aftermath of a terrible tornado storm. Hope I never have to go through one, or see one again.