Jessica’s Story
One year ago, as the calendar flipped from the 25th to the 26th of March, Jessica Folds was prepping her family to head for sleep when an instinct told her otherwise.
“I just got my little girls to sleep, and I don’t like to sleep during the storms.”
“I went to make my bed that night, and something told me not to, and I just threw my sheets on my bed, and I said I would just make it another day.”
Jessica didn’t know it, but a tornado was heading for her house in Newnan, Georgia.
“Whatever...I say it’s my Grandmother telling me not to sleep in there. So my little girls were asleep, and then all of a sudden, you hear... "
“...it sounds like trains coming, and so I heard it hit my house.”
The tornado was later rated an EF-4, with a peak wind of 170 mph and a path nearly 40 miles long. The tornado was as wide as 185 football fields.
The tornado barreled through the heart of Coweta County, directly hitting Jessica Fold’s house.
“It was one of the first houses hit, and after it hit me, it got stronger.”
“Just the sound of it hitting the house, was like... an indescribable sound. It felt like there was probably two hundred trains, and they just smacked down into the side of the house.”
Jessica Folds is a teacher at Newnan Presbyterian School. She is also a mother of two little girls, who some how slept through the storm in a different room.
“I was like I was going to walk into my bedroom -- I needed something in -- and I walked in, and I just immediately lost it. It tore the whole wall off of my bedroom, which was an outside wall.”
But the nightmare continues, day after day, one year later, with storm damage lingering throughout the town in the form of broken trees, homes with structural damage, and memories that just won’t fade away.
“My girls -- if it’s brought up or if a storm comes, they immediately cry, or get anxious -- they automatically think if it storms, it’s going to be a tornado. ‘Cause that’s just in the back of their mind. Even though they were asleep, it’s still a fear. Because they saw the aftermath.”
Tornado scars etched in the ground and in the minds of those who experienced the storm.
“Because, walking through the house, and different people walking through the house -- if we had slept in our room that night, my kids wouldn’t be here today.”
To Jessica, a cloud is not just a cloud. And rolling thunder can generate electric pangs of fear.
“The Sound -- like it replays in your mind all the time.”
But there is a force stronger than a tornado: The resiliency of Jessica and the City of Newnan.
“I’ve tried to make the best of Saturday coming, because it will be the year, and that is all I can do. To be grateful and blessed that you’re alive and that we’re here and we did get to move home finally and that our kids are alive.”
Melissa’s Story
Editor’s Note: I would like to extend a personal note of gratitude to my friend, Melissa Angley, who is a teacher at Newnan Presbyterian School and Jessica’s colleague.
Melissa invited me to Newnan Presbyterian School to talk with the students - Kindergarteners through 2nd Grade - discuss the science of meteorology, as well as storm safety.
Melissa shared with me her story:
“We could actually hear the sirens from the elementary school, which sounded ominous. We knew that bad weather was coming, we just did not anticipate it to land the way that it did.”
“We got the kids out of bed and into the basement. My husband has some construction helmets and between that and the bike helmets, and the tennis shoes... We got all ready and tucked them in downstairs.”
“It was just incredibly loud, and very scary.”
Melissa was shaken, her voice trembling as she shared her story with me, even though the storm occurred one year ago.
“After the weather passed, we went outside and I saw branches. Large, large limbs from trees that had made huge indentations on the ground that fell just feet from my daughter’s room.
“And our neighbors had lost their deck -- there’s two rooms that were damaged in their home. And their home is flooding, because it ripped the plumbing loose from their walls as it passed over.
“And this at an EF-0, we find out later. It really wasn’t as devastating at our home in our neighborhood as it was when it started on the other side of town.
Melissa is grateful that her personal family as well as her school family was unharmed.
“Being a teacher at the school and also a parent we have about 160-180 kids in this school, and they are all over this county.”
“In those moments where, I was thankful that my own kids were safe, I was worried about the kids at the school -- some of them did suffer some pretty dramatic losses. Some of our students were displaced for months. I’m just glad it was over.
“It looked like a war zone in town the next day.”
But the tornado did not flatten the city’s resiliency.
“I’m glad to be a part of this community, to see the community effort come together was just incredible.”
“And I think that having you come talk to the school and give us the opportunity to inform our kids is helping some of our younger citizens -- as well as our older citizens -- recover from the trauma of going through that experience.”
Barbara’s Story
Barbara Kookogey is the Director of Newnan Presbyterian School. Her home was on the other side of town, thankfully untouched by the tornado, however she knew the school was in the storm’s path.
“It was really a scary evening to experience. At the time, when you hear the warnings and you go to your shelter, you really don’t know where it is happening.”
“I just kept getting text after text ‘Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay?’”
“It was quiet at my house, but I heard the sirens so I called my sister who lives near Newnan High School. ‘Get up’ and she’s like ‘What?!’ She didn’t hear the tornadoes. Her house was directly in the path. They lost every tree in the yard, luckily her house was up. But my son lived right on LaGrange Street, so my husband and I got up to see his house to see what it looked like, we couldn’t get there. Luckily he wasn’t home. So we weren’t worried about him, but worried about his house.”
“So we came to the school, and I was very pleased to see the school was still standing, although we lost our beloved tree at the playground that provided a lot of shade as well.”
“But the school and playground was still standing, so I thought ‘Okay, we’re good.’ And I proceeded to get on my phone to check on everyone that I knew, who was in the area, and we all waited until daylight to come out and see what actually happened.”
But Barbara’s thoughts went to Jessica Folds, who was riding out the storm with her two daughters.
“I was in touch with Jessie immediately, one of our teachers, to make sure she was okay. I knew she was at home alone with her two little girls, and she was a wreck... "
“She said ‘My roof blew off, we’re here, it’s dark, it’s pitch black.’”
“And I said ‘We’re going to try to get to you’ and of course we couldn’t get to her, so we had to leave her alone, in the dark, with her two little girls, not knowing what was coming next.”
Barbara looked off in the distance.
“It was quite the experience.”
“Personally I had no property loss, but to walk down LaGrange Street on March 26... it looked like a war zone. It was awful to see.”
“I had some of our -- a lady and her husband, who I go to church with, they live on Greenville Street -- they had a tree hit their house, on their bed, seconds after they got out of bed, and I think they did get a couple of staples on their head. But that was like the worst.”
“Even driving down there now, it’s so sad.”
“And the school where my kids all went to high school, it’s like that’s not even going to be there now.”
But the storm could not stop Barbara, the teachers at Newnan Presbyterian School, and the City of Newnan.
“It’s remarkable how this community came together, as all communities do in disasters like this. But we will recover, the houses are coming back, they are beautiful, some of them are more beautiful than they were.”
Barbara looked at the empty plot in the playground where the beloved tree once stood.
“It’s the trees, that breaks my heart. That when you drive down LaGrange Street, it’s not the same. And it won’t be for a life time or two.”
“But, the people are safe, and that’s really the main thing that you take from this. That the people are safe. Houses can be rebuilt. Trees can be replanted.”
“And life goes on.”
My sincerest gratitude to Jessica, Melissa and Barbara for sharing their stories of survival and recovery with me. -- CE
Facebook: Christina Edwards WSB
Twitter: @ChristinaWSBwx