Cleanup continues in tornado's wake

They cleared fallen trees with chain saws and heavy equipment, installed tarpaulins over holes in roofs, replaced utility lines and hauled off debris — the aftermath of a tornado that stayed on the ground less than 10 seconds.

While the visual impact of the storm was extensive, there were no significant injuries and only one private residence was destroyed. In fact, property damage was relatively light, all things considered.

“It could have been a lot worse,” noted Mayor Charles L. Hardy Jr. Wednesday morning.

Indeed, in countless yards and streets, huge trees fell parallel to mobile homes or away from houses where a few feet to one side or the other would have meant heavy property damage if not loss of life.

Wednesday’s agenda was devoted to removing debris and beginning repairs.

Trees in Ashworth Mobile Home Park, located off old U.S. 441, were decimated, but most of the big pine, poplar and oak trees toppled by the storm did little or no damage to the trailers.

Carolina Cable was already restoring service Wednesday morning, and 15 volunteers from Disaster Relief Georgia from as far away as Augusta wielded chainsaws to clear roads and yards in the mobile home park.

The state director of the 7,000-member organization resides in Commerce. Stuart Lang lives on Smallwood Drive. He was on the scene by 5:00 Tuesday afternoon.

“It just happened to hit our hometown,” he commented.

Commerce Public Works Director Rick Lewis had a crew at Ashworth Mobile Home Park too. He pointed out that Jackson County provided three dump trucks and a front-end loader to that effort.

“They really stepped up,” said Lewis of county crews.

Hardy felt the same way.

“Jackson County has been here full force,” the mayor said. “All of the fire departments have been here. The county manager was here last night, along with Steve Nichols and the EMS folks. They’ve really pitched in. We have two or three crews from the correctional institute with chain saws, backhoes and front-end loaders. All of the police departments from the surrounding areas were here to help set up roadblocks and control traffic. I can’t say enough.”

Those people were still on the scene Wednesday.

Commerce firemen nailed blue tarpaulins on a dozen residences Tuesday night to cover holes caused by wind or falling trees. They were back out Wednesday morning and by 10:30 had placed tarpaulins over four more homes.

Paula Sears of the Jackson County tax assessor’s office assessed the damage on Cole Court as a JCCI crew cleared trees and limbs.

The American Red Cross set up a shelter at the First Baptist Church of Commerce, where church personnel provided food Tuesday night. Church members transported residents from the affected area to the church and delivered meals out to the scene. The Commerce School System prepared breakfasts on behalf of the Red Cross on Wednesday.

Commerce officials scrambled to rent the old Bi-Lo building on Homer Street as the Cedar Drive building housing the gas, water and sewer departments was destroyed. The adjacent building housing the electric department was also damaged.

“We don’t know yet if we’re going to have to tear it all down or if we can use the walls,” said Hardy, referring to the destroyed building. “The roof is gone.”

GEMA arrived Wednesday morning in Gov. Sonny Perdue’s helicopter to assess the damage. Assistant City Manager Steve McKown said the city hopes to join Hall County in a bid to get GEMA funds to reimburse some of the city’s expenses.

The storm largely spared the city’s electrical system. McKown said none of the city’s primary lines were affected, and only a few service lines were knocked down. Most of the affected area is served by Georgia Power, which had damage to a major transmission line as well as countless secondary lines.

The city’s downtown restaurants saw a spike in business Tuesday night, partly because Banks Crossing was without power.
Stonewall’s ran out of food and closed at about 7:00. Little Italy and Vaughn’s Wingslingers were packed, observed Hasco Craver, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority.