Wax, Taylorsville Areas Begin Recovery
By RNW Reporter Hayden Jennings
It was a beautiful day Sunday, which was a drastic change from the deadly storms of the day before. But the beautiful day reflected the cleanup as visible progress had been made within the past 24 hours.
This being my third tour of the disaster area, I could already tell the difference just by looking. As a member of the media, I was able to access the restricted area which had grown even more Sunday as members of the Georgia State Patrol and GA Dept. of Natural Resources had closed all of Wax Rd./Live Oak Rd. in the area. I was accompanied by my cousin who was curious to see what it looked like.
Our tour began on Bon Loop Road where in the yard of the first house on the road. It was apparent that all of the family and friends had turned out to begin renovation on the moderately damaged two-story home. As we proceeded down the road, a Jack Russell Terrier darted in front of us, which led me to hope it was another one to be added to the reportedly 8 surviving Jack Russells and Chihuahuas that were housed at the destroyed kennel nearby. Still, there were 100 dogs housed there before the twister struck.
I was also glad to see that black and white cars spotted the area with government tags and labeled FEMA and National Weather Service.
We then returned to Live Oak Rd. to proceed to the Floyd County damage area and was stuck in traffic as crews from Georgia Power worked to repair downed lines. We then arrived on Old Wax Rd., parked on Brumbelow Rd., and proceeded to walk into the area where the storm had leveled or stripped everything.
Most of the downed trees had already been cut and tarps covered the houses whose only damage that showed were the missing shingles.
As we came to the houses which had been leveled, I was amazed to see the swarm of vehicles and people there. Volunteers climbed through the rubble as their vehicles sat parked on the road with labels such as “Turner Family” or “Supply Volunteer” on their dashboards.
As we walked out, a truck hauling three horses passed us. After speaking to one of the owners, we learned that 2 were ok but a third horse had debris pass through it’s nose during the tornado. The owner said it would be alright though.
From there, we decided to see the damage that continued in a path through Taylorsville and almost striking Ga Power’s Plant Bowen. There were homes on Taylorsville Rd. with moderate damage and at one point, almost every tree had fallen across the road but had just recently been removed. The storm hit these few homes and a cemetery, and hit a subdivision there, causing roof damage to an estimated 3/4ths of the around 50 homes. The storm also caused damage to Taylorsville Elementary, mainly the playground as the jungle gym laid in a tangled heap.
After this, roads were closed and we decided to head on back to Rome.
To sum up the situation, major progress is being made by the hardworking volunteers from the area. It is both amazing and inspiring how this small, Southern community can band together as a “family” to help it’s the other distressed “family” members. It is apparent that while the scars will remain on this area for some time, these areas will flourish again soon.
