BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News got a first look at a manufacturing plant demolished by a tornado in north Georgia nearly two years ago.
The tornado that hit Adairsville January 30 took only seconds to virtually destroy the 200,000-square foot Daiki plant on Highway 40.
Spot welder Deborah Atwater remembers seeing the storm coming and hunkering down in the bathroom with everyone else. They crawled out once the storm passed and found almost everything was gone.
“When we got outside we didn’t really see how anybody could have survived that,” Atwater said.
Eighty-five employees were in the building that day. There was only one minor injury.
“We've told people that was our 9/11. We will never forget what happened,” Atwater said.
Daiki has re-hired about 30 of its 90 former employees. The Japanese company that makes tractor parts did lose some business during the rebuilding
“Several of the customers had to buy elsewhere and they're not ready to bring it back in some cases they found they could buy some things cheaper overseas,” said plant manager Wes Stephenson.
But Daiki is working to prove it can do it better and turn around parts more quickly than shipping them in from overseas.
The focus is not only on winning back business but safety. There are two nearly tornado-proof rooms at one end of the plant. At the other is a deep underground pit for employees.
All the employees are thankful they have jobs with hopes of more to come.
“You almost want to jump up and down. It’s a great day today for Daiki,” said employee Paulette Knowles.
WSBTV
