Friday, September 17, 2010

An Unexpected Tragedy

Last night around 7pm I was strolling through campus when extremely loud sirens started whining from every direction. The sirens were alerting that Athens had been put under a tornado warning and that every outside should immediately seek shelter. Being that this is a college town, no one really seemed to pay much attention to the warnings. When the storm was over, I emerged from my dorm to see that everything was still perfectly intact. As the night went on however, I started hearing more and more stories about how bad things were just a mere 5 minute car ride away. The student newspaper’s printing site was destroyed, trailers were flipped, and that in some cases some houses were just totally destroyed.
When I awoke this morning I knew I had to go check out the rumors as soon as possible. After collecting myself and shooting another quick assignment, I threw my roommate in the car and we ventured towards The Plains. What I found was much worse than I could have expected. Trees everywhere, displaced people littering the streets, and more destruction than one ever wants to see. I will be keeping the people of Athens in my thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks, and I ask for you to do the same.
The pictures below are a small bit of what was going on today, and I hope that they can shed a little insight into just how bad the storm was.










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