Newnan – Brittany Mitchell felt her house rock as the tornado impaled it with trees. She heard her windows shatter. She spotted water streaming underneath the door of the closet where she and her family took shelter.
The twister threatened to pry open that closet door. Struggling to keep it shut, Brittany’s husband, Edward, prayed God would take him instead of his wife and young daughters.
“It was like being on a rollercoaster with nothing to hold onto,” Brittany recalled. “It was crazy. All I could do was just hold my kids as he held us.”
When they finally emerged from the wreckage of their home, the Mitchells discovered their cul-de-sac was in ruins. Two of the houses that once lined their street were gone. Their neighbors were trapped in the debris. Edward rushed in to help.
In all, the tornado tore through 39 miles of Heard, Coweta and Fayette counties last month, wiping out 70 homes, damaging more than 1,600 others and pummeling Newnan High and Atkinson Elementary schools. Packing 170 mph winds, the twister’s path stretched more than a mile wide. It blocked roads, delaying paramedics from reaching a 56-year-old man who suffered a heart attack and died.
More than three weeks later, the region is still cleaning up and asking for help.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Homeowners and motorists have filed more than 3,500 insurance claims for more than $55 million in losses across Southside, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner’s Office. Those numbers are expected to climb. Meanwhile, Newnan estimates it will cost $14 million just to haul away the debris clogging the city, replace curbs and gutters and pay overtime.
The timing of the disaster is heartbreaking for a region that is still reeling from the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Across the three Southside counties hit by the tornado, COVID-19 has infected more than 15,600 people and killed about 360. Brittany Mitchell’s husband lost two cousins to the disease last year. She lost her job at a local automotive manufacturing plant as she cared for her daughters amid disruptions at their school caused by the pandemic.
Despite deep political divisions in America, strangers from the across the nation are coming together to clean up the mess, feed the hungry and make room for displaced families.
“That Friday morning after the sun came up it was not long before you could see an army of people who had driven in from other neighborhoods and who had a chainsaw and a five-gallon can of gas,” Newnan Mayor Keith Brady said. “Newnan is strong, so we are going to rebuild and get through.”
Asking why
When they heard the sirens, Dean Jackson, his wife and children headed to the basement of their home with their two kittens, Finn and Kieran. Their lights flickered. Violent winds smashed their windows.
“We could feel the house shaking. We could really feel the pressure,” said Jackson, a former newspaper journalist who now serves as the Coweta school system’s public information officer. “And then we heard this huge crash.”
An oak tree that once shaded their front yard crushed the front of their home. They found cracks in their house’s foundation. Many of their neighbors suffered the same fate.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Newnan High School — a cherished community hub that hosts numerous public events — sits about a half a mile from Jackson’s home. The tornado wiped out so many decades-old trees in his neighborhood that he can now see the school from his front yard.
The twister tore away parts of the school’s roof, smashed its windows and destroyed students’ musical instruments. Water poured in, damaging the floors. Inspectors have labeled parts of the school campus “TL,” for total loss.
Before the tornado hit, the school system was racing to get its employees vaccinated against COVID-19 while hoping to get more students back to in-person learning. All Newnan High students will now learn online for the rest of the school year while the school is repaired.
“It is a new set of challenges on top of the ones that you already had,” Coweta Schools Superintendent Evan Horton said. “For me, that was probably the most emotional part of it. And then after a day or so, you say, ‘All right. Let’s go. Let’s figure it out.’ But it’s hard not to say, ‘Why?’”
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Scattered among other schools or working out of their homes, the high school’s teachers are learning more about what their online students have experienced during the pandemic. Among them is Robin Goad, a former Olympic weightlifter who coaches the school’s gymnastics team and who teaches food science.
“Nothing that we are doing is in the playbook. We have had crises on top of crises,” said Goad, a Newnan High graduate who is teaching online from home. “I am so heartbroken that this has happened to us, but I do feel like we will come back stronger than ever — and resilient. And I don’t know what we can’t do after this.”
Chase Puckett, the school’s principal, is similarly optimistic.
“We are going to pull through this,” he said. “And our hope is that we will come through this on the other side stronger, kinder and maybe a little more appreciative of the people around us.”
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
The good Samaritans
Kenya Quinones remembered it was calm, quiet and unusually hot outside when the tornado struck her family’s Newnan apartment. She and her family crowded into the bathroom for safety. The lights went out. A tree hit their roof, exposing their living room and forcing them to move into a hotel.
“What’s next?” said Quinones, a former Goodwill worker. “I hope this doesn’t happen to this town anymore. They have had enough devastation already.”
On Tuesday, Quinones and her 18-year-old daughter, Cheyenne, showed up at the Coweta County Fairgrounds and Conference Center for washcloths, hairbrushes, deodorant, ravioli, protein bars, socks, cellphone chargers, a flashlight and batteries.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
A volunteer wrote down what they needed and then disappeared into a maze of rooms stocked with food and supplies. Most of the items were donated by local residents.
“They are wonderful here,” Quinones said. “This is the best thing that has happened.”
Leigh Ann Erenheim is voluntarily overseeing the humanitarian efforts at the fairgrounds. A former firefighter, she works about 50 miles away as the director of Talbot County’s emergency management agency. On average, she said, her team is helping 35 families each day at the Coweta fairgrounds.
“About the time we think we are fixing to run out of something, it is funny — it will show up,” she said. “The community has stepped up and done a tremendous job of taking care of their own.”
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Other volunteers have fanned out across Newnan, cleaning up debris and delivering meals. Among them was Tripp Slaton, 17, who plays goalie for Newnan High School’s varsity lacrosse team.
“The mood was great. Everyone was just glad to be out helping,” he said, calling his community “beautiful.”
‘We have one life’
Declaring “Love you,” a giant heart-shaped balloon floats in Brittany and Edward’s Newnan hotel room, a reminder of their fourth wedding anniversary.
They first met at a McDonald’s drive-through where Brittany once worked. Edward was ordering an iced tea. He liked her smile. She liked his. He asked for her phone number. They went on their first date at Callaway Resort & Gardens.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
The couple and their two young daughters are staying at the hotel in Newnan while they search for a rental home. After the tornado hit, Edward held it all in, until he couldn’t. Once they checked into the hotel, Brittany said, he slipped into the bathroom and wept. Brittany hugged him, reassuring him: “We are good. God has us.”
On Wednesday morning, Brittany woke up before sunrise and got her girls dressed in their orange school T-shirts. She placed matching orange silk flowers in their hair. To ward off COVID-19, Runyia, 10, and Brooklyn, 5, wore black masks that announce: “I Love Jesus.”
It was still chilly and dark outside when Brittany walked them to the curb. Glancing around, Runyia said she was looking forward to seeing her friends again. A yellow school bus hissed as it pulled up beside them. Brittany hugged her girls and told them she loved them. They stepped aboard.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
The bus took them to West Georgia Technical College. The college is hosting Atkinson Elementary students while their school undergoes repairs. The tornado tore up its roof. Their Atkinson teachers welcomed them at the college with hugs. Then they huddled with them as they nibbled on Pop-Tarts.
Brittany feels anxious when she is separated from her daughters. All three have had trouble sleeping since the tornado hit. Brittany woke them before the twister struck early that morning and joined Edward in shielding them in the closet. The girls now wait until their mother turns in before they feel safe enough to go to bed. Brittany sometimes has flashbacks about waiting in the closet for the tornado. She has decided to find counseling for her family.
“My girls are my life,” Brittany said, sobbing. “I just feel I need them here, like right here with me.”
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
At the same time, she and her husband are grateful none of them were injured that day. And they have been struck by the numbers of strangers — some from as far away as South Carolina — who have helped their neighborhood clean up and recover.
“We have one life. All of the other stuff can be replaced,” said Edward, a paving company supervisor.
Later Wednesday, Brittany revisited their home. Her family moved in just a year ago. It was their first newly built house. Brittany picked the lot, the model, its sky-blue color, the kitchen countertops, even the chandelier.
Now, sunlight pours through holes trees punched in the walls. Much of the siding has disappeared. Part of the ceiling in the master bedroom is gone. The interior walls are cracked. Snow-like insulation covers the bedroom floors. Parts of a nearby church were scattered across the lawn.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
From her garage, Mitchell gazed at the remains of her neighborhood. The guts of homes lay in mounds along the street. A pair of khaki pants hung from the skeleton of a tree. It was eerily silent until a beeping truck backed up into a driveway, hooked up to a giant red dumpster full of debris and towed it away.
Brittany said her extended family and her and Christian faith have helped her persevere. Her home is insured, so her family will rebuild it. Facing mounting expenses, she and Edward have weighed moving elsewhere. But she is determined to start over on the same spot, to return their home back to the way it was, to make it seem to her daughters as if the tornado never happened.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
By the numbers
* Homeowners and motorists have filed more than 3,500 claims for more than $55 million in losses because of last month’s tornado in Southside. Those numbers are expected to rise substantially.
* 1,744 homes have been affected. Of those, 120 sustained major damage and 70 were destroyed.
* Newnan High and Atkinson Elementary schools were severely damaged.
* Newnan has estimated it will cost $14 million just to haul away the debris clogging the city, replace curbs and gutters and pay overtime. City crews have already hauled away more than 120,000 cubic yards of vegetation.
Sources: Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner’s Office, Newnan, Coweta County and the Coweta County School System.
How you can help
Donate to help with disaster relief through the Coweta Community Foundation here: www.cowetafoundation.org/donate or through the Central Baptist Church’s GoFundMe campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/nrgxd9-newnan-tornado-disaster-relief?qid=c3b3931a49b704b0d4b3016ae34846e8
Volunteers who want to help with cleanup and other duties on Saturday can sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdpxThM0ZROE0-nnTF1HNrycx3j-NLkTSe8L9ns7SgfuME8Zw/viewform
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