NEWNAN, Ga. — This week marked three years since one of the strongest tornadoes to strike Georgia in years touched down in Newnan, where a community has continued healing in the time since.
The EF-4 tornado ripped through Coweta and Heard counties on March 25, 2021, damaging roughly 1,700 homes and costing millions in cleanup and rebuilding.
At this time last year, Newnan Mayor Keith Brady said that "time heals" but that "time also fades."
"We hope that our citizens understand that they always need to remember what happened," Brady said. "They also need to remember the response. Our citizens here have been courageous and resilient. They have stepped through the process of rebuilding, and in some cases having to demolish and start over completely.”
Newnan High School was effectively a total loss, and work has been ongoing to rebuild the school in the years since. According to a local report last summer in the Newnan Times-Herald, that rebuilding project was still on track and on budget.
In all, the rebuilding of the high school is a $110 million project District Superintendent Dr. Evan Horton said last year.
"This is one of the single largest investments in Coweta County School System history: over $100 million project to replace the oldest school in the county," then-Newnan High Principal Dr. Chase Puckett said.
Photos | EF-4 tornado devastation in Newnan Saturday
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