Dispatch from Ringgold: Humanity in Action

(Editor's Note: This article was originally published May 3, 3011.)

Ringgold, Ga. -- In times like these, people start to ask questions that no one has the answers to.

Why now? Why us?

But, tornadoes don't bring logic. They bring destruction.

Homes demolished. Lives upended. Family and friends gone. Survivors left to pick through their lives tossed around by an unforgiving intruder.

"I lost it; I'm still losing it," said Mike Roe, who has lived in his Ringgold home for 25 years."I'm in disbelief, to be honest. It's just so hard to explain."

Roe was held up in his basement with his wife and a family friend when the rare EF4 twister packing winds up to 175 mph hit Ringgold. There have only been nine since 1950. It swept through Wednesday evening at a time when families would have been settling down after dinner. 

Residents say they braced for their lives for maybe one minute, or two minutes, or was it five minutes? The details are scattered much like their family memories. In the hardest hit area of Cherokee Valley Road, at least seven people were killed.

Roe knew some of the victims, and now he has funerals to go to.

"I'm just real fortunate," he said driving through his neighborhood. "I got one neighbor (now). That's it. There's nobody else anywhere."

Those left behind wonder how all of this devastation can be OK. Fate and faith begin to collide. And, then a cavalry of complete strangers arrive from a place they've never even heard of.

A Call to Action

Death tolls were mounting. Photos of the devastation were hard to avoid. Every major news outlet from coast to coast carried coverage of the tornado outbreak and aftermath. More than 340 people have been confirmed dead, and the death toll continues to rise.

Stuart Scruggs, a member of Snellville United Methodist Church, couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. He helps lead missions and disaster relief within the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, so jumping into action came natural. A call went out, and six men from the church decided to join Scruggs.

They were: Dan White, Curtis Jones, Richard Hart, Glenn Edebohls, Mark Arnold and Bob Nunn. They prayed about it.

"I prayed to God," Jones said. "If I can give two hours, I want to give two hours."

None of them knew what to expect when they left Snellville at 7 a.m. the Saturday after the storm. This is only the second time in history that tornadoes have been this deadly.

Before they left Dave Whitworth, also of the church, led the men in prayer. He asked God to allow them to be "a heart in a hurting place."

The men packed a trailer full of tarps, nails, wood and other supplies and left in a three-vehicle caravan to North Georgia. By 9:30 a.m., the crew pulled into Varnell, Ga., where they met with 37 other Methodist church members, including those from Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church in LaFayette, Ga. and Pleasant Grove UMC in Dalton, Ga. At 10 a.m., the troop crossed the Catoosa County line, and then finally into Ringgold.

They were stopped – by checkpoints and by disbelief.

A church steeple lay toppled on to the ground. Buildings were unrecognizable. Trees were down, everywhere. Orange markings spray-painted across buildings remained as a signal that rescue workers had come and gone.

"Bless these people's hearts -- my God," Jones said as he surveyed the damage.

By now, the federal government had taken over Ringgold. The men couldn’t go where they thought they needed to go. They ended up in a little area on the edge of the city limits on a road called Cherokee Valley. They soon learned that this place is where most of Catoosa County's death's were.

Of the seven Cherokee Valley Road deaths confirmed as of Saturday, four were members of one family.

"When you see this stuff," Scruggs said, " it's very humbling."

Humanity Working

With so many people wanting to help, things were a little confusing on the first day. Some areas of Cherokee Valley Road were blocked off, and the worst areas in need were still being tended to by squadrons of police and firefighters. Only recently had homeowners been allowed back inside their homes.

"Looks like a nice place to live, except for the tornadoes," said 16-year-old Timothy Hughes, who came with Pleasant Hill UMC. "It's just so sad that all these people had to go through this."

Despite the flux, the Methodist church members quickly got to work. They did whatever they could do, wherever they could do it. They secured tarps to roofs, sifted through remnants with homeowners, sawed trees and moved heavy debris aside.

In some cases, they just listened.

Connie Gilreath lost her entire home; she was huddled in an inside room -- the only room left standing. Her mother and cousins also live on Cherokee Valley Road, and they also lost a great deal. Some things can be salvaged, and some things cannot. After seeing much grief, now she wants to be a volunteer.

"I have never been so scared," she said. "We're alive; that's what counts. God watched over us to the extreme."

Deron Tankersley, 40, had just gotten home from work when the tornado hit. He, his wife and his two children went to their basement garage and hid under a stairwell.

"The worst part was that you could hear the house begin to creek; you could hear the trees beginning to hit the house," he said. "Then all the windows blew. After the windows blew out, it sucked the garage doors off - one of 'em. And, the roof and everything went, and the whole house was shaking."

He thanked the first responders and the volunteers for coming to help him and his family. "Everybody here has been so helpful and courteous, and, they've worked very, very hard to get everything done."

Edebohls, a volunteer from Snellville UMC, said most of the time it is not about the actual rebuilding of buildings or nailing tarps to roofs. It's about the emotional connection made with people being helped.

"It's the emotional; it's the counseling; it's the condolences for these people," he said.

Returning Home

A lot of things were going through Dan White's mind as he drove back home. He'd never been in the aftermath of a tornado before, so "maybe that's what was so intriguing."

But, how does something so tragic happen to innocent people? In a time like this some may question, "How do I say thank you God?," White said. 

"Yeah, that's tough," he added. "But, God's the one that sent us, but I don't know... there is no explanation."

If this tornado was about punishment, he said, "then I should have been in the center of that tornado. If God is punishing people for their sins, then, I'm sorry, I should have been gone a long time ago."

Jones, who was riding in the backseat, said he feels for the people in Ringgold. And, that "I hope I never see anything like that again, either by TV or in person."

When Edebohls returned home he also made some revelations. He walked into his air-conditioned home, looked at pictures of his wife and kids.

"Everything was right where I left it," he said.

Then, the tears came. "And, I'm not a crier," Edebohls added.

The overwhelming feeling compelled him to find a way to return to help. Today, or possibly later this week, he will be leaving for Ringgold again.

"I have my emotions," he said. "I know what I saw, and it's an experience that has changed me."

"It's just wild, the whole thing."

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This is the second in a three-part series:

• Part 1: Dispatch from Ringgold: Bird's Eye View
  
• Part 3: Dispatch from Ringgold: Voices of Compassion