| "I
was visiting my brother who was at that time a pharmacist in
Athens. Several of our friends joined my brother and me and we
went out to eat on that Saturday evening. We decided on a restaurant
named Swamp Guinea which was located just outside Athens. Swamp
Guinea was a rustic restaurant located in a pine woods with a
single winding road. That Saturday evening we got to the restaurant
about 6:00 P.M., waited for a table since it was quite busy,
and sat down to a delicious seafood supper. There were five of
us seated at the table. We all enjoyed our meal and felt stuffed.
At the end of the meal,we heard an announcement come over the
intercom in the restaurant. The announcement said that a tornado
had been spotted near Bogart, a near-by small town. To be honest,
we didn't think much about it. But in only a few minutes, it
sounded like a train was driving up out front with this tremendous
roar. The building began to shake. The wall near the door had
lots of glass and you could hear it breaking. Parts of the roof
disappeared with other parts beginning to sag. We all hit the
floor and got under the tables. It was something to see five
grown men underneath one restaurant table. The lights went out.
It was pitch black dark. The restaurant was packed. All you could
hear now were the screams of the people as they were dealing
with the tornado.As the sound of the train passed, people began
to check outside to see if it might be safer for us to move outside
to get from underneath this sagging roof. I heard one man mention
that the electricity lines were down and people needed to watch
where they were walking. I remembered a couple of people had
flashlights and they were leading people out. As we moved out
of the restaurant, everyone gathered in an area in front of the
restaurant that was lower ground and had a wall around a putt-putt
course. We waited in that area as the storm moved on. In the
parking lot by the restaurant, several people started their vehicles
so we would have more light. One person tried to leave but noticed
the one road that led to the restaurant had been blocked as the
tornado had leveled the pine trees and there was no way to get
around. We also noticed the heavy damage to many of the cars
and trucks in the lot. We were quite lucky because our car was
not damaged at all, but the two on either side were severely
damaged from huge limbs. In a short time but it seemed like forever,
emergency vehicles approached down the road and cut and moved
the pine trees. We hurried back to the apartment and called our
families in South Georgia. It was funny to hear their reaction,
'What are you talking about?' They had not heard about the storm.
The next day we visited Swamp Guinea. We were extremely lucky
to have survived such a devastating event. You always hear about
the force of tornadoes, but I can tell you from first hand that
it is true." |
