ROME, Ga. — Few thought there would be much left of Floyd County’s historic courthouse as fire raced through the historic landmark March 23.
NewsChopper 2 was overhead as the bell tower collapsed.
“The main portion we’re looking at is where you see the wood slats on the building. That’s where the ‘banding’ is happening,” county facilities manager Ryan Davis told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen.
On Thursday Davis was up on the scaffolding. Crews wrapped half-inch-wide steel cable all the way around the tower. There are 16 cables in all, each 93 feet long, which are pulled tight.
“That will give us what we need to reinforce the tower so we don’t worry about it coming apart,” Davis said.
That will making it safe enough to reopen surrounding streets and allows crews to carefully examine the inside walls — possibly rappelling from the top down.
The examination will help determine if the brickwork that has lasted 134 years is still strong enough to last another century and beyond.
Stormy Hannah has concluded that anything is possible.
“Engineering is crazy these days. They can do anything. To think they can save what’s left of it,” she said.
“I haven’t seen many people ‘against’ saving it. Everybody seems to be on board,” Hannah said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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