Back in the days when Rudy Giuliani was America’s Mayor, just after 9/11, someone asked him what the death poll in New York City would be.
“Almost too much to bear,” Giuliani said.
That’s how I felt after a tornado devastated parts of Spalding County Thursday.
The death toll was actually just 2 people, but one of the cases was just heartbreaking. In Butts County, which is southeast of us along the path the storm followed, A 5-year-old boy was killed when an uprooted tree fell oer and crushed his mother’s car.
In one of those “there but for the grace of God” moments, I had been out running errands in Griffin earlier in the afternoon. I went to the dry cleaner, the post office and Walmart, and I returned home and put my car in the garage about 45 minutes before the storm hit.
The tornado came right through the Walmart shopping center, knocking out several stores on the south side of the center. It then crossed the street, knocking down numerous power lines on the west side of N. Expressway before crossing and caving in the roof of Hobby Lobby.
It will be interesting to see how quickly the damage is repaired. I remember when we lived in Los Angeles in 1994, the Northridge Earthquake destroyed part of the busiest freeway in the country — Interstate 10 west to the ocean from I-5. I forget how many months we were told it would take to get things back to normal, but whatever it was, the work was completed 1-2 months ahead of schedule.
Yesterday morning there were hundred of uprooted trees crushing house and cars and blocking streets all over the city.
Griffin, not Los Angeles.
We stayed home today, but it will be interesting if we go out tomorrow to see how many have been cleared away.
Still, while property can be repaired or replaced, nothing will bring that little boy back.
That’s the loss that really matters, the one that truly breaks your heart.