“Requiem” for Adairsville

Like most everyone, I’m devastated every time a community is hit with a collective tragedy. From Oklahoma City to 9-11 in New York and through the countless natural disasters, I’m sad for all those lives scarred and lost.  

That devastated feeling hit me again when Adairsville, Georgia was in the path of an EF-3 twister on January 30.  The previous day felt like a spring day, but the weather pros told us about the cool air mass behind our warm winter weather day. We were nervous that entire Wednesday as the system was approaching from Alabama. The twister hit Adairsville in late morning. As the reports came in about that devastation and one fatality, we were preparing for the worst in the metro as we experienced what seemed like a brief monsoon. Our grounds could have easily flooded if the system parked itself over us. The tropical gully washer moved on from the metro later in the day.

Still, this rare late January 2013 weather event is another in a long line of natural disasters that have hit the Peach State. I only wish that positive words and thoughts could give this community (and others that have met the same fate) everything back in a second. Since words and thoughts cannot magically repair the communities, we witness local and out-of-town folks come together to pick up the pieces and move on from the tragic day. On a chilly, sunny Saturday, February 2nd, volunteers reported to a local high school to begin the healing process.

One only wishes that the kind-spirited nature of the healing process could become permanent, but similar to Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath, there could be some controversy. Hopefully there won’t be much of that finger-pointing in Adairsville. Southern gentility seems to dampen natural disaster dilemmas. Nevertheless, some are questioning the amount of warning folks had before the twister hit the city with a few sirens that malfunctioned in the county. And there could be some stories on how certain folks were scammed or incorrectly processed by insurers and government relief efforts.  Again, hopefully those types of stories will not come to fruition.

Adairsville is a good community right off of I-75 filled with kind-hearted folks who enjoy their slice of beautiful North Georgia life and landscape. From its quaint downtown to the nearby Barnsley Gardens Resort which is nestled in the area’s magnificent hillside, Adairsville will hopefully get back up on its feet.

There was once a news anchor who wrote a stellar musical composition titled "Requiem for Oklahoma City" for the folks affected by the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I only wish I could compose a piece for Adairsville. The closest I could come is to share some photos that I took of the area during a late 2009 visit.