March 1-2, 2007 storms that blew across Georgia left nine people dead, including six in Baker County, one in Taylor County and two, Jerry Dukes and Carrie Gaines, in Americus.
Construction continued Friday on a new Winn-Dixie a few hundred feet from the Hudson Street home where Dukes and Gaines were found, where a new home also is being built.
The American Red Cross estimated that 173 homes were destroyed in Americus, and 198 heavily damaged. Some 120 were damaged in the city’s historic district. Demolition of heavily damaged Sumter Regional Hospital, a major employer and key provider of medical services for a six-county region, began in December.
The recovery experience “has made us all step across any line that was there and pulled our community together,” said Leisa Cross, executive director of Middle Flint Chapter of the American Red Cross.
An event today is a day of celebration and thanks, as the Red Cross sponsors “There’s No Place Like Home” at Americus Parks and Recreation’s Regional Park.
“We’re trying to use Saturday as a day of celebration, a day of fun, because we’ve worked so hard the last year to get where we are,” Cross said.
Every storm, near or far, strikes a chord, especially a storm last week in Webster County that demolished seven homes and damaged 15, she said.
“Recently, after it happened somewhere else, we have a lot of people from our community got together to help,” Cross said. “It’s a full circle.”
The storm spared none - former Rep. Jimmy Skipper’s Lee Street house wore a blue tarp for months after three large oak trees left a gaping hole in its second story.
Since his family has had another place to live during the repairs, his contractor concentrated on other jobs before undertaking the substantial task of re-wiring and re-plumbing the 1921 stucco home and repairing interior and roof damage.
“In some ways I think it takes longer to rebuild a house than it does to build a whole new one from the ground up,” Skipper said.
The storm’s most important impact has been the community’s response.
“We found out that we could pull together as a community,” Skipper said.
“That’s what makes me the most proud of the community,” he said. “The city and county really got together and did what needed to be done. There were no turf battles between the city and county or the individual people.”
Nearby Sumter Regional Hospital, as well, has “done a really good job of keeping the services available,” despite having lost its permanent facilities in the storm.
A few of its doctors, though, have not weathered the storm recovery and have moved elsewhere to practice, while several OB-GYNs have set up camp at Phoebe.
Initially establishing an EMS triage unit in a Lee Street church, Sumter Regional expanded to a tent facility, then modular Sumter Regional East.
Last week hospital officials obtained a certificate of occupancy for a hospital built from collapsible military-issue units that, when it opens, will offer most hospital services until a new facility is finished.
Funded by FEMA and GEMA for one year, Project Care has tried to address the mental health needs of those affected by the storm, including the impact on both professional and family caregivers, said Gayle Alston, director of Community Initiatives at the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving.
With the community’s hospital heavily damaged, many professional caregivers “were really impacted greatly,” and continue to face daily uncertainty about their careers, though few have asked for help, Alston said.
“We have found what most people already know about professional caregivers. They are always the first in line to help but are not always seeking help for themselves,” she said. “They’re more comfortable thinking about what to do for others.”
Even if they don’t show it, caregivers may likely be experiencing some anxiety they may not connect to losses sustained during the tornado.
“There are a lot of losses to be grieved,” Alston said. “We did lose two wonderful people.
“Additional losses such as the loss of the hospital, if your doctor moved away, places an added burden not only on the patient, but the caregivers.”
The disaster was not the first in recent memory for many. The Flood of 1994 killed 15 people in Americus and left the city an island until floodwaters receded.
The Red Cross estimated that 173 homes were destroyed in Americus, and 198 heavily damaged. Statewide, half of the record-setting storm damage estimate of $210 million took place in Americus, according to the office of Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine.
The Rees Park home of Lucille and Billy Smith had a new roof within days of the storm, but other aspects of recovery took much longer.
“The hydrangeas had been there for about 40 years,” said Lucille Smith, whose “old-fashioned southern yard” in the historic district won a community award before the tornado hit.
“We’re been working at ours constantly, but it takes a while, you know?”
A huge pecan tree took up much of her brick patio when it fell.
“I’m not putting the patio back either; I’m leaving it like that. That’s a memory.”
Several of the houses surrounding Rees park feature sparkling new columned porches.
“They look better than they ever have,” Smith said.
And nearby Rees Park School, a historic brick high school facing the park not in use before the tornado, also has been rebuilt.
Sen. George Hooks, D-Americus, serves on a community “re-greening committee” that formed to replant the many old trees wrenched from the ground in the storm.
“It’s so important to get the community back to a beautiful landscape,” Hooks said.
Chaired by former Mayor Russell Thomas, the committee has planted about 100 trees so far, some of them 25 feet tall.
Historic Oak Grove Cemetery lost 104 trees, Rees Park lost 25 and nearby Joyce Myers Park lost 39, Hooks said.
The dean of the University of Georgia’s school of environmental design has authorized students and faculty to create a detailed re-greening plan, which includes three varieties of red oaks, magnolias, several other varieties of trees and 20 live oaks that were donated.
“They marked every spot,” Hooks said of the plan. “The university was so generous.”
Joyce Myers Park will be the final site for re-greening, he said.