Easter Sunday brought with it both destruction and evidence of God’s mercy and protection.
Residents across the county sought shelter when they were warned about a very strong and dangerous tornado coming Sunday afternoon. Multiple areas were impacted, and crews are still actively working to assess the damage. At press time Tuesday, there were over 40 structures identified with damage, according to EMA Director Eddie Ivy.
There were injuries reported, but the county is blessed that there were no lives lost in the storm.
Riverside Baptist Church on County Road 320 in Stonewall, and the community surrounding it is one of the areas that suffered a direct hit from the tornado. One mobile home was flipped upside down with two people inside. The residents only suffered minor cuts and bruises, and it is truly a miracle that nothing worse happened to them. One of the residents in the home was Haley Kennedy.
“I was looking out the front door, and I saw big tree branches twirling in the wind, so I turned around to wake up Cane since he was napping on the couch,” said Kennedy. “We were in the kitchen when it started to topple over. When I felt it coming over I knew we needed to lie on the ground so that we wouldn’t be thrown everywhere. We crawled out when it was over.”
Next door, Timothy Mixon’s home was miraculously left with minor damage. However, he was able to see the mass destruction outside as the tornado destroyed the mobile homes in front of his.
“I was laying in the living room with the front door open and watched a trailer stand up on its ends and twist around, and then the frame hit a tree and took the top out of it. The rest of it flew off somewhere. At the same time there were two or three more trailers that went off with it,” stated Mixon. “It took the top of the tree in front of our house, and I thought it was going to get on us, but it didn’t. It was like being in the Wizard of Oz and just happened so quickly. It sounded like a train was coming, and all of a sudden stuff started lifting up and was gone.”
There are many others in the community with similar stories.
After the destruction, Clarke County stepped up like it always does and came out to support and assist those who were impacted the most.
The volunteer fire departments, citizens surrounding the communities, power companies, road crews, law enforcement, and other first responders all did an amazing job going responding to the emergency.
The county went under two different tornado warnings, but there is no evidence so far that the second tornado ever touched down. Several areas were impacted in Sunday’s weather event, including Pachuta.
As of press time Tuesday, the National Weather Service hasn’t completed its evaluation of the tornado. Watch our website www.clarkecountytrib.com and Facebook for updates this week.
