Atlanta weather | Tornado-damaged Paulding school reopens
Students returned to class Monday morning at a Paulding County elementary school that was in the 29-mile path of a strong tornado that damaged over 150 buildings in the county Friday night.
The tornado took part of the roof off one of three classroom wings at Poole Elementary School, and tossed around portable classroom trailers that were being used for storage.
School officials moved students from the classrooms in the damaged wing to other parts of the school, and spent the weekend cleaning up debris from the school grounds.
“Things look great this morning, other than the roof gone,” said Cliff Cole, superintendent of Paulding County schools. “The inside of the building looks great.”
He said the damaged wing had been blocked off to students.
“Our first priority is the safety of the students and the staff here,” Cole told the AJC.
“Once we had our engineers out here and they checked out every structural part of the building, and once they determined it was safe, it was our job to prepare the rest of the building,” he said. “We worked two days going through the grounds to make sure there is no debris on the ground.”
Cole said that while some parts of the building would be “a little more crowded, we anticipate a regular school day.”
He said that some students from another of the county’s schools, Robert Elementary, came to Poole on Sunday with $300 in school supplies that they had collected in their neighborhood, and gave the supplies to teachers.
“Just to see these young ladies out doing that, and thinking about their peers at this school, it tells you something about this community,” Cole said.
“Attendance looks normal,” Cole said after classes began. “Students, I think, were just relieved to be back into the building.”
“I feel bad for my teachers,” said Blake Baker, one of the students whose classroom was in the damaged wing of the school.
The school invited any parents with concerns about the building’s safety to attend an 8 a.m. meeting in the school’s media center. Only five parents were at the meeting, Cole said.
“I trust the school system,” said Jonathan Paris, whose daughter is a second-grader. "They would not put our children in harm’s way, and if there was anything that would jeopardize our children's safety, they wouldn’t allow it to happen."
Paris lives in the Vista Lake subdivision a short distance away from the school.
“It was a miracle that it missed our house,” Paris said. “Right across the street, there’s homes damaged. It’s a blessing.”
The National Weather Service confirmed Sunday night that an EF-3 tornado with wind speeds up to 165 mph cut a 29-mile path of destruction through Haralson and Paulding counties west of Atlanta Friday night, while a second, EF-1 tornado with winds estimated at 100 mph was on the ground for a mile in east Cobb County.
The most significant damage was in Paulding County, where the tornado ripped into the county's airport and a couple of neighboring subdivisions.
Altogether, at least 161 Paulding County structures were damaged in the storm, said MaryAnn Phipps, coordinator and spokeswoman for Paulding Emergency Management and Fire Department. Officials reported that 10 homes had major damage, 58 homes had moderate damage, 92 homes had minor damage and one church was also damaged.
The Weather Service said the tornado first touched down in Haralson County at 8:09 p.m. Friday, leaving a 29-mile, 200-yard wide path of destruction into Paulding County over the next 39 minutes.
The weaker Cobb County tornado touched down along Roswell Road near Providence Road at 9:14 p.m., and lasted for about a minute.
Authorities said Friday night's storms left one person dead in Alpharetta. The body of Patricia Barnett, 83, was found in a creek early Saturday after more than two dozen Alpharetta emergency personnel searched for the woman reported missing late Friday. They believe she had climbed into a drain pipe to escape the storm.
At its height, the storm had cut power to about 10,000 homes, according to Georgia Power spokesman Mark Williams.
Company crews worked through the night Friday and through the day Saturday so that power to those residences had been restored by Sunday morning, he said. The worst of the damage was in and around Smyrna, Williams said. "That took awhile. But most places it was just trees on the line." At mid-day Sunday, there were "some scattered outages across the state," Williams said. "But that's because it's kind of windy. The storm damage was pretty much taken care of."
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton said Monday will be mostly sunny, cool and breezy, with highs in the mid-50s. A wind advisory is in effect for metro Atlanta from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and a freeze warning has been posted for Monday night, when lows are expected to drop into the low 30s.
Tuesday will be sunny and cool, with highs in the mid-50s and lows Tuesday night in the low 40s. A midweek warm-up will push temperatures back into the low 70s by Thursday, Minton said.
Wayside Baptist Church in Paulding postponed its regular Sunday service to 4 p.m. The service was to be held outdoors, after the building was seriously damaged by the violent storm, knocking off the church's steeple and ripping off its roof. However church leaders decided to go ahead with services in the sanctuary, according to member Dana Bell, daughter-in-law to the church's pastor, Billy Bell.
Though crews had to replace a wall and a roof at the school, Poole Elementary was expected to open and ready for students on Monday morning, according to the Paulding County school district website. "We want to assure you that our facility is safe, and instruction will go on as usual," school officials said.
The Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport in Dallas closed indefinitely after taking a direct hit. An airport hangar was destroyed, along with its contents. At least 10 planes were damaged. Officials said they do not know how long it will take to reopen.
At a news conference Saturday morning, airport official Blake Swafford said 19 of 23 planes were totaled, including a Citation jet worth $1.2 million, according to Channel 2 Action News. Damage to the airport was estimated at $5 million. Facility damages totaling $2 million includes a hangar, terminal, fences and lamp posts, Swafford said.
AJC staffer Alexis Stevens and photographer John Spink contributed to this report.