RINGGOLD -- The deep scar left by a tornado that barreled through North Georgia is visible at Ringgold High School. Broken glass is embedded in the football field. Light towers are bent in half, their tops almost touching the ground.
A brick wall that lined the baseball stadium, known as "Little Wrigley," is gone. The building that housed the wrestling and cheerleading teams was ripped open like a bag of candy, same for the field house. The gyms are salvageable, but suffered water damage.
The tennis courts house temporary offices for the clean-up crews working nonstop to repair the damage. The cost of clean-up and repairs for the school, which is closed, will top $25 million, $200,000 for the athletic facilities alone. The work that needs to be done is overwhelming.
It doesn't seem possible, but Ringgold has vowed to play football in the fall. One of the first steps was getting students back to class, and they will return Monday, now spending half-days at their neighboring school and rival, Heritage.
Looking ahead, Robert Akins, Ringgold athletic director and football coach, is resolute about getting his team back on the field, promising, "We will play, we will play somewhere, somehow.”
This community needs something to rally around, and Ringgold High and its athletic teams are a solution.
Everything turned to chaos
Before everyone's world in Ringgold changed, Principal Sharon Vaughn gathered her nearly 1,000 students into the main part of the school as officials debated what to do next. At 9 a.m., the decision was made to feed them and send them home.
Less than 12 hours later, the destruction was devastating. It took fewer than five minutes for the tornado to leave its mark.
Vaughn, Akins and others drove through the darkened streets to the school at 3 a.m. Power was cut off to most of the town. The school officials didn't realize the danger they were in. The air was pungent with the smell of natural gas. Power lines were down. Glass was more common than grass.
When Vaughn found a way into the school, she stopped and began to wail. Her office, housing her collection of art, old yearbooks, photos, her dissertation, was impassable. That brought her outburst. She continued on to where the students had been gathered that morning, and it was mostly intact.
The students, had they all stayed put, would have been safe.
Remembering the victims
Not every student found a safe haven away from the school.
Adam Carroll was known for his smile and cowboy boots. Even when reprimanded, Carroll would turn a slight shade of red before his smile would broaden. He was a self-styled country boy who loved to make people laugh, whether by being silly or painting his body blue and white at football games. Vaughn called him "Tex" because he always wore his dark brown boots, even with shorts. He was on the wrestling team.
Chelsea Black was more serious. She was a good writer with a quick, dry wit. A teacher said he saw her becoming a doctor, helping kids.
They died in the 195-mph twister.
Carroll was trying to protect his younger half-brother, Andrew, 8. Carroll and two family members, jumped in a bathtub at his grandmother's trailer in nearby Apison, but the winds tore the trailer apart.
Carroll's body was found by an uncle, yards away. Carroll's cousin, grandmother and great-grandmother were also killed. His half-brother was found hundreds of yards away with a broken femur and will recover.
The bodies of Black, her father, mother and older brother were found in a ditch near where there home had been.
Standing amidst bulldozers and other equipment near the remains of the football bleachers, Vaughn said she had received a collection of photos of Black, who was going to be inducted into the National Honor Society as a junior. The principal doesn't know who to give the photos to.
Other NHS inductees want to make sure that something is done to remember Black at their ceremony.
Baseball team plays again
Akins is not sure where his football team will practice or play, but it likely will have a lot of night practices and Thursday games.
Trophies wrestling mats, weights and nets were among the athletic equipment lost. Akins said it's time to put into practice the things he has said so many times: integrity, perseverance, teamwork.
Colton Cross, a Ringgold baseball player, pitched in at the nearby Methodist Church on Thursday, helping serve pizza, macaroni and cheese and other items to survivors still without power or homes. Cross and his team were still in the playoffs, now playing games at Heritage.
Vice principal J.R. Jones, Vaughn and Akins toured the campus again, and Jones found a small symbol of hope: a baseball, undamaged, on the ground. He held it up and smiled, and said he was going to give it to the baseball team. It may have served as inspiration.
In the first athletic event since the storm, Ringgold routed Riverwood 13-3 and 10-1 on Friday in the playoffs.
Helping Ringgold
A Ringgold relief fund has been set up:
RHS-RMS Athletic Relief Fund
c/o Northwest Georgia Bank
P.O. Box 789
Ringgold 30736
