ADEL, Ga. (WTXL) — 3:29am ET. Near Barney, a small town in Brooks County: A tornado touches down. It quickly grows in intensity and travels northeast, snapping trees and damaging buildings in it’s path.
It’s next target: Sunshine Acres Trailer Park in Cook County, Georgia.
During the pre-dawn hours on January 22nd, 2017 the EF-3 twister came through the western sections of the trailer park in southern Cook County and left a path of destruction in it’s wake. Some of the damage is still visible two years later.
“We got the call from our code red that at around three o’clock, that there was a tornado warning for Cook County,” said Lamar Ray, Emergency Manager of Cook County.
“[I remember] being awakened about four thirty, five o’clock in the morning”, said Russell Acree, Co-owner of Sunshine Acres Park, “by the phone and someone on there telling us we had a catastrophe out at sunshine acres.”
11 people died as a result of the EF-3 tornado that ripped through South Georgia. Two in Brooks County, two in Berrien County, and seven in Cook County.
“[It was] just total devastation”, recalled Ray, “Our county has never seen this level of destruction before.”
“[There was] debris all over the place”, Acree said, “Trailers had been torn down completely.”
Adel is a small town in Cook County. It is home to dozens of manufactured homes. It is a quiet part of a quiet county. And a large section of Sunshine Acres was torn apart by the powerful winds of the tornado.
“We repaired all that we could”, said Acree, “But we had no insurance whatsoever on the mobile homes out there, never thinking that we would have a disaster like this.”
The scars on the ground linger and where homes once stood, there is vegetation or simply empty lots of concrete.
“The 21 homes that were completely destroyed, we have not replaced”, Acree said, “We have not been able to buy new homes.”
The healing process continues to this day. The January 22nd, 2017 EF-3 tornado is one of the strongest storms the region has ever seen.
In addition to the Brooks/Cook/Berrien tornado, six other tornadoes occurred in the region. This includes an EF-1 in Valdosta and a large wedge tornado that struck Albany at EF-3 strength, killing four people.
by Alex Cordero (2019, Jan 22)
