As most of you know I work and stay in Northwest Georgia during the week.

This past Wednesday was a violent day in weather in NW Georgia. This spring we have been getting a lot of rain many weeks so the ground is pretty saturated. We had been warned about the frontal systems that were to move thru Wednesday night could be brutal.

Wednesday morning i woke up to a heavy rain and went to school in and the wind picked up. That morning a lot of large trees fell in the area and did a fair amount of damage. One of instructors i work with had a tree fall on her house but it is thought small roof damage.

Later in the morning with the tornadoes in Texas and Arkansas and Mississippi occurring and arrival expected in late afternoon to evening, the college announced we would close at 4 and then a couple hours later we closed at 2.

That evening after 6 the storms started thru. From about 7 for 45 minutes i was in my downstairs bathroom and laundry room listening to city tornado siren sound. At my apartment we did not get much of the storm but i understand from deputies the tornado probably went over me while in air. I lost electricity for most of the night.

That was all very minor. Ringgold Georgia is about 20-30 miles northeast of me and over a ridge. The tornado landed there and literally wiped out downtown, major damage to high and middle schools and wiped out the motel and restaurant dist on I-75. A number of people were killed there, including a family and large art of another. Another instructor who works in my office was at a house and the trailer beside it was destroyed and killed 4 of the people in it. The trailer is gone. The fifth person was the daughter of the guy he was visiting and they found her nearby and she is in the hospital fighting the injuries.

The destruction missed me but I have students who were in the areas of destruction. So far all that I have had contact with came thru ok.

I am asking you keep the areas in the south who were hit in your prayers and and thoughts and actions. The damage is unbelievable. It is similar to the storms of 1974 that did major damage in the Midwest. Xenia Ohio was hit the worst then and I went thru the town a couple weeks later with youth leaders meeting in Dayton and i can still picture how there was nothing left, just foundations and where one gas station had been only the pumps stood and a slab.

Dwight