Storms charge through

Alexander Cain
The Union-Recorder

May 12, 2008 10:37 pm

— Crews with the City of Milledgeville and Baldwin County spent a significant portion of Sunday and Monday traveling area roads in an attempt to assess a final total of damage from strong storms and high winds that moved through the area over the weekend.
The National Weather Service confirmed early Monday morning that an F-2 tornado had ravaged portions of Bibb County and the City of Macon early Sunday morning, leaving Macon Mayor Robert Reichert to declare a curfew for the City of Macon for the first time in the city’s history on Sunday.
Closer to home, Baldwin County wasn’t immune to the storm’s power, but felt fewer effects than its neighbors of Bibb, Jones and Wilkinson counties.
“All we know about right now are the trees that we have down. The crews that reported to me said we had only about eight or nine trees down across the county on county roads,” Assistant County Manager Ralph McMullen said. “We don’t have any word on property damage at this time, but considering what happened in Macon we were very lucky.”
Inside the city limits, Harold Parham at 111 Richmond Road wasn’t feeling very lucky Monday morning — a toppled tree in his front yard had trapped his cable and phone lines underneath it while leaving a live power line from Georgia Power still feeding electricity to his house.
“Georgia Power has told me that they can’t get to me right now,” Parham said. “I’ve had the house for five years and I’ve got power right now, but every time the wind shakes the line, my lights blink on and off.”
A few miles away on McIntosh Street at the Marlor House home of Milledgeville’s Allied Arts, one of the Marlor House’s next-door neighbors wasn’t as lucky.
A large pecan tree was uprooted and overturned, crashing into the rear portion of the McIntosh Manor House at 108 McIntosh Street.
The city-owned property had college students living in it at the time, according to City Marshal Jack Graham, and the students were allowed to return to their residence after a cursory inspection of the property yielded no damage to the housing portion of the building, Graham said.
As for the residents of the McIntosh House, Graham sympathized with their experiences, having undergone a few of them himself.
“It was occupied by college kids at the time and I think it scared them to death. The whole thing happened at about 1 p.m.,” Graham said.
Regardless of the storm damage, Baldwin did seem to fair better than Bibb or Wilkinson, both of which will continue clean-up throughout the end of the week.
Only a few lingering effects were felt after the storm passed, according to city and county officials and local media reports.
Central Georgia Technical College, for instance, closed its doors at the Milledgeville campus on Monday after officials with the college in Macon announced the closure of all CGTC campuses after the CGTC campus in Macon received damage from the storms.
Miles away on Franklin Street, historic Memory Hill Cemetery also received mild damage when one tree snapped in half and large limbs blocked paths through the cemetery.
All in all, Graham said, things could have been much worse — a sentiment shared by Parham, who was still waiting for contact with cable and phone officials on his property as of press time.
“I usually have my antique car right there,” Parham said pointing to the exact spot where his tree fell. “I had just moved it. My neighbor is an Allstate agent, and he said it was a good idea. He’s not going to work my case, though. I’ve been told since the tree didn’t land on my house that it’s mine to deal with rather than the insurance company’s.”

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