CONYERS, Ga. — Conyers residents are working to clean up after an EF-2 tornado devastated their community overnight and brought trees crashing into their yards, cars and homes.
Kathy Lawrence is one of those residents.
She told 11Alive on Wednesday she doesn't mess around when it comes to severe weather. As soon as she learned of a potential threat, she climbed into her basement with a bicycle helmet and emergency kit.
"I heard the wind swirling — a lot of wind next to the wall on the southern end of my house," Lawrence recalled. "And then I heard a crash. It sounded like glass."
After the storm, she came back upstairs and found a hickory tree in the middle of her living room. A portion of her roof was gone; the insulation from her attic covered the floor.
"It was discouraging, but on the flip side, more important to me, is that physically, I was fine, and really emotionally at the time, I was doing better than I thought," Lawrence said. "The home can be repaired."
The only thing Lawrence worried about was two photographs she inherited of her maternal grandparents. She said there are no other copies of them.
"They are hanging on the wall in the room where the tree severed the roof," she said. "A young man who's a friend of my neighbor is going to go with me in there and get them off the wall for me. They're priceless."
Once crews finished removing the tree and loose debris from her roof, Lawrence's neighbor Brad climbed inside to rescue those photos. The photos will help make her house feel like a home again once repaired.
Family photos saved from Conyers tornado
Like Lawrence, Angie Harnage also lives along Milstead Avenue. She said her uncle built a shed in 1952, but the tornado completely missed it.
"I can't believe it," Harnage said.
She said they're all like family in the community.
"We're a great community," Harnage added. "I've lived on this street my entire life. We're thankful and blessed. We've come together, and we're going to... we'll get it done."
