Local

Adairsville church holds service, cleanup after tornado

ADAIRSVILLE, Ga. — Adairsville residents joined a Sunday church service, where they took time to reflect after Wednesday's deadly tornado that displaced dozens of families and damaged hundreds of homes and structures.

The service at the Adairsville Church of God comes a day after volunteers tirelessly chopped up trees and gathered other sorts of debris left behind from Wednesday’s tornado, which claimed one man’s life. In addition to service, scores of volunteers returned to the site Sunday to continue clean-up efforts.

“We went from a thriving community that I have loved for 10 years to absolutely nothing in a matter of hours," said volunteer Kay Carter.

The church is being called the command center for the storm relief, where supplies come in by the truckload and volunteers go to get assignments.

"I think they were thinking 300 to 400 people (were) coming. I was looking at the parking lot, and my guess is we have had 800 to 900 volunteers," said Mcannally.

The National Weather Service reports there were two twisters that hit north Georgia. The EF1 tornado damaged parts of Fannin County and the stronger EF3 destroyed homes and businesses in Gordon and Bartow counties. The NWS confirmed the tornado reached speeds of 160 mph, tearing through a several area businesses and homes.

But volunteers from all over have answered the call for restore order following the chaos.

"It was very heartwarming to see people turn out to help people they don't know and won't see again," said Mcannally.

Mcannally got choked up when talking about one victim – a woman named Barbara, who felt helpless with all the damage to her yard.

“Barbara is a widow and all these crews were out there," Mcannally said, holding back tears.

Carter said the recovery effort was a little hard to talk about, too.

"We are going to build our community back. Pardon me. We are going to get our community back up and running," Carter said.

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