05.02
Strong thunderstorms with potential tornadoes rolled through the area late Monday and early Tuesday, but the worst damage done to Walker County was a few downed trees and several hundred people briefly without power. About twenty people spent the night in county-run emergency shelters set up at the Civic Center in Rock Spring and Armuchee Valley Community Center in Villanow. (Rossville City Hall was also open, but sat empty as “about 50” residents in that community chose instead to ride out the weather at Hutcheson Medical Center.)
It could have been much worse – per the National Weather Service, a small tornado touched down in northern Whitfield County monday evening. The twister took out trees, several farm buildings, and killed approximately 16,000 chickens.
The storms brought back memories of deadly tornadoes that tore through the region exactly three years earlier, killing a handful of people in Dade and Catoosa while doing millions in damage. Walker County also lost a resident in the 2011 tornadoes, but she was killed while staying with family in Alabama.
Recovering from THOSE storms took months, and some emotional scars still remain among many who lost (or nearly lost) friends and family. Thankfully Northwest Georgia was spared from enduring that again this week.
LaFayette City Council has narrowed its list of City Manager candidates down to only three, from over 60 who applied. All three are from out of town.
City has been without a permanent manager for about 13 month now.
“Out of town” doesn’t necessarily mean way way out of town. Hopefully it’s somebody from the region, like Whitfield or Floyd or Gordon county, where the cities are professionally run but close enough to know the needs of locals.. Please no more City Managers from cities of 2,500 people south of the “Gnat Line.”
Sgt. Tyler Skelly of LaFayette passed away early Tuesday morning in Dalton. The Marine suffered a seizure and fell while stationed in Bahrain two years ago; resulting injuries caused his health to deteriorate and ended his life this week. Skelly was 26.
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