Newspaper Page Text
HERE’S THE
SCOOP
Nancy Butts
critical
after being
struck by
train
A Barnesville woman
is recovering after being
struck by a train while on
her morning walk down
town April 22. Nancy C.
Butts, 66, was struck in
the Elm Street crossing
just before 8 a.m.
SEE PAGE 2A
Abreu off
ventilator
and jailed
without
bond
Former Barnesville
municipal court judge
Henry Abreu was arrest
ed April 23 after checking
himself out of Harbor-
view Nursing Home in
Thomaston.
SEE PAGE 3A
National Day
of Prayer
set for May 6
The annual National
Day of Prayer observance
is set for Thursday, May
6 at 12:10 p.m. at the gym
at First Baptist Church.
The event is sponsored
by the Lamar County
Ministerial Association.
Multiple pastors and
others are on the pro
gram.
Lunch will be available
for a donation to the min
isterial associations help
the needy fund.
For more information,
cal 770.358.2353.
Subscribe. Your name goes
on the label in this box
EF3 Tornado: Ten years after
WALTER GEIGER
news@barnesville.com
Wednesday marks the 10
year anniversary of the killer
tornado that ripped through the
community in the wee hours of
April 28, 2011. The tornado and
the great flood of 1994 are the
two biggest disasters in Lamar
County’s modern history.
The twister swooped in just
before 1:30 a.m. not long after
TV weather reports indicated
the threat was over. It passed
over a lake off McCard Lake
Road in Pike County then
touched down near the inter
section of Piedmont and Turner
Bridge roads, cutting a path of
devastation before lifting back
off around High Falls Lake in
southeast Butts County. The
squall line spawned a second
twister that caused heavy dam
age in the Sunnyside area of
Spalding County.
Later classified as an EF3,
the tornado left behind prop
erty damage in the hundreds
of millions of dollars. On Grove
Street, Paul and Ellen Gunter
were killed. Their seven-year-
old daughter Chloe was spared
(see related story below).
The tornado, like the flood
17 years earlier, proved just
how close-knit our community
is. Trees were still falling and
power lines dangling when vol
unteers arrived in droves with
chain saws, trucks and heavy
equipment to help their neigh
bors in need.
What was then a fledgling
B-LC Community Foundation
developed an assistance fund
that raised considerable funds
to aid in the rebuilding process.
Ten years removed from that
tragic night, trees and vegeta
tion along the twister’s route
have grown back. Most home-
owners have rebuilt though
there are several sites were
only foundations remain.
For those who lived through
it and those who helped in the
recovery, the memories of the
2011 tornado will always remain
vivid.
Note: Those of us at The Her
ald Gazette and barnesville.com
worked tirelessly to cover the
tornado, the rescue effort and the
recovery. For that coverage, your
newspaper was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize.
2011 tornado survivor Chloe Gunter remembers ‘that night’
Chloe Gunter revisits the Gunter compound on Grove Street which was wiped out by a tornado that devastated
the area 10 years ago. She was with her parents when the twister struck. They were both killed but young Chloe was
spared. She will graduate from LCHS next month.
KAY S. PEDR0TTI
kayspedrotti@gmail.com
Though she has been
plagued by few nightmares in
the last 10 years, Chloe Gunter,
now 18, said she “can still see
it all in my mind.”
Her description is terse and
moving as she describes how
her parents, Paul and Ellen
Gunter, disappeared in the
howling darkness of Barnes-
ville’s EF3 tornado in late April
of 2011. They were the only fa
talities of the storm, but many
were injured.
“I woke up to what I thought
was thunder,” she began. “Ev
erything was pitch black and 1
went to my parents’ bedroom.
The windows blew in. I felt
like something was holding
me, something in the air, and
I pushed it away. I knew they
should be there, but 1 couldn’t
see. All 1 knew to do was to
start yelling for my brother
(Marty Gunter).
“1 started walking and yell
ing to where 1 heard Marty and
(his wife) Patti yelling for me.
It was so painful - there was
glass and metal everywhere. 1
could not tell where anything
was; 1 had my eyes shut tight. 1
remember tripping over some
kind of board. 1 finally got close
enough that Marty picked me
up - that was painful. He car
ried me across the street to a
house that was still standing.
1 was cold and shaking and
somebody covered me with a
crocheted blanket; that hurt
too because the threads kept
getting caught in my cuts.
Then another person in a yel
low jacket picked me up again
- that hurt very bad too - and
we all three got into an ambu
lance and went to the hospital
(Griffin-Spalding).” She had
multiple lacerations and carries
two deep scars on her face now,
but had no broken bones.
“I love Marty and Patti,” who
became Chloe’s guardians after
it was determined that Paul and
Ellen had perished in the mael
strom. “1 do miss my parents.
1 think about them sometimes;
1 remember my mother made
this wonderful broccoli cas
serole with cheese in it,” Chloe
continued.
Soon after the tornado,
Marty and Patti painted Chloe’s
bedroom in their former home
on Bush Road with washable
white paint, so that she and her
friends could draw, write and
scribble whatever they wanted
to. Chloe said that was one way
of “relieving some of the stress.”
Chloe also remembers that she
swore she would never go to
bed without socks on again, be
cause “if something happened
1 could get to my shoes and my
feet would be okay.” She also re
members “sleeping a lot then.”
When she returned to school,
Chloe’s best friend Willow Wel
don was her “bodyguard” and
would not let the other children
ask her a bunch of questions.
Her recovery has been slow but
certain; the Gunters are a family
of faith, attending Church of the
Nazarene in Griffin, and that has
helped. Chloe goes to church
camps and events with the
youth group and sings with the
praise band.
Chloe Marie Gunter is now
an honor graduate at Lamar
County High School. She plans
to attend the College of the
Ozarks in Missouri to study
criminal justice, hoping to
become a police officer. She is
working now at the Barnesville
Dairy Queen.
“1 could not do a kind of of
fice job or something that’s the
same day after day. 1 want
SEE TORNADO SURVIVOR 2A
Saffron Abreu
KAY S. PEDR0TTI
kayspedrotti@gmail.com
Senior Saffron Abreu said
that being named STAR stu
dent was “surprising, since 1
had been away from the core
courses and was a little out of
practice” when she took the
SAT that earned her this year’s
STAR title.
Her choice as STAR teacher,
counselor and former teacher
LeslieAnne Williams, was not
surprised at all. She believes
Saffron to be “brilliant, full
of creativity and a person of
integrity.” This is the fifth time
Williams has been chosen, but
she says it must be her last
because she has changed over
to counseling. She is dedicated
to helping students successfully
navigate what could be “the
worst four years of their lives,
or the best.”
The 18-year-old is the daugh
ter of Brian and April Abreu and
has a brother, Bryce, who is a
freshman at LCHS. Saffron has
been dual-enrolled at Gordon
State College and will start
is 2021 STAR Student at Lamar County High
there in the fall as a sophomore.
She is undecided on a career
path, so she would like to get “a
general studies degree and then
go on somewhere after that.”
While at LCHS, she has sung
in Honor Choir, competed and
placed in several Literary com
petitions, won the Rotary Laws
of Life Essay contest, and has
been on the Academic Team
since eighth grade, among other
accomplishments. Saffron says
she likes to read, especially
online but not social media. She
draws exceptionally well, Wil
liams said, and was her intern
in the counseling office recently
- “very, very good at organiz
ing,” the counselor added.
“I am just very happy about
the honor, and 1 love Mrs. Wil
liams,” said Saffron. She was
in several of Williams’ classes
such as gifted and AP language
arts, since ninth grade. Williams
commented, “Saffron is loved
by all her teachers and will find
her way into some creative
endeavor that will give her a
lifetime of joy. She deserves it.”
Shooting STARs
LC STAR teacher LeslieAnne Williams (left) and STAR student Saffron Abreu.
©2021 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS