Tornado heavily damages McIntosh

Mon, May 12, 2008

By EMILY STRANGER

The Brunswick News

An apparent tornado that ripped through southeast McIntosh County Sunday morning flattened three buildings in an industrial park before ravaging a historic neighborhood and nearby marina, leaving a path of twisted metal, leveled buildings and uprooted trees in its wake.

Residents and emergency personnel who combed through the rubble said the scene looked like a war zone. No one was seriously injured or killed.

The tornado reportedly touched down at about 10 a.m. in the McIntosh County Industrial Park, just west of the Prime Outlets Mall on Ga. 251.

After destroying the Outboard Rejuvenation warehouse, a marine sales and service business, the twister picked-up 45-foot boats that had been inside and hurled them across the park like toys into Gateway Behavioral Health Services, a residential treatment facility for women.

Another building in the park, the McIntosh Emergency Medical Services building, was also reduced to its cement foundation. Ambulances and fire trucks lay barely visible beneath strips of ripped insulation and rubble.

Dr. Frank Bonati, CEO of Gateway, said he was amazed that there were no fatalities. He walked around the remains of the center and shook his head in amazement.

"It looks like a bomb dropped here," he said.

Dr. Frank Bonati, CEO of Gateway, surveys the damage done to the Gateway building in McIntosh County on Sunday. (Bobby Haven/The Brunswick News)

The front of the building contained numerous administrative offices. Women and children lived in rooms located at the back of the brick building.

Bonati said there were three Gateway employees, 18 women and 22 children inside the Gateway facility when the tornado struck.

"Fortunately, they were gathered in the atrium for church services when it hit, so it put them close to an exit so they could get out quickly," he said. "We had some minor injuries – one broken arm and some contusions – but that was all."

The women and children were taken to McIntosh County Middle School, where the American Red Cross fashioned a makeshift triage center. They were treated and given food and dry clothing, he said.

"It's total destruction. Our main computer system was also located in the building, so all of our servers are gone. We're assessing the damage now."

Bonnie and Rick Caldwell, owners of Outboard Rejuvenation, walked around the devastation and tried to recover little items, such as tools and fishing tackle.

Rick Caldwell estimated there had been about 60 boats inside the warehouse when the storm hit. On Sunday afternoon, they lay scattered and overturned – some crushed into pieces – throughout the industrial park.

"There are two or three boats I haven't found yet and two of my boats landed in the Gateway building," he said.

"One of our new $38,000 boats is laying all the way across the park now, and I still haven't found the motor from it yet."

He estimated his damages roughly at $5 million.

"We had two (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) boats, and they were $700,000 a piece," he said. "I also had $5,000 worth of tackle that is now scattered about."

After the tornado hit the industrial park, it rumbled northeast and touched down again in the Ridge National Historic District, a neighborhood of venerable homes and oak trees located three miles north of Darien.

Linda and Ken Parker said they were getting ready for church inside their one-story home when they heard a loud noise outside.

"It sounded just like a freight train, like people always said it did," said Linda. "We heard the noise and I said, 'Ken, I don't like it. Come into the bathroom now.'"

Parker said she grabbed a blanket to throw over both herself and Ken. They huddled close together as the twister tore down oak trees in front of their house before jumping over their home and moving northward with the storm.

"It was gone in five minutes," said Linda Parker.

The tornado continued north from The Ridge and destroyed the Blue-N-Hall Fishing Dock, a popular marina located less than two miles away.

Ray Parker, who has headed the McIntosh County Emergency Management Agency since 1986, said Sunday's storm was the worst he has ever seen.

Although the tornado was destructive, he said there were no reported fatalities.

He said he wouldn't know the extent of the damage until Monday afternoon.

"This is the first time we've had anything like this, that's for sure," he said. "It was big as all get out."

The storm appeared to be a tornado, based on the damage it caused, said Pete Keegan, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jacksonville. As of Sunday evening, the service had not confirmed it as a tornado.

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