COCHRAN, Ga. — People around Cochran and Bleckley County continue cleaning up after a tornado tore through last week. So many trees got knocked down, they canceled classes at Middle Georgia State University for a few days to get the roads clear and power restored.
We went out there to see how the community is rebuilding.
"About 7:30, it hit,” Joe Fisher says.
Fisher Funeral Home director Joe Fisher is talking about the tornado that hit last Wednesday night. He said you could hear it coming.
"Like they said, a train coming through, and we had big pines that came down in our yard as well,” he says.
Fisher and his family were home that night, but when he checked the funeral home chapel the next morning, he was shocked.
"It tore out all the lines and part of the chapel building and portico and threw it over our neighbor's front yard and tore his building up,” he says.
Fisher says his family has owned the business for 150 years, and seeing the damaged chapel made him sad, but he's thankful to be safe.
"No one was hurt -- nobody in the town was even hurt,” he says. “It was just remarkable to see the City of Cochran took care of getting the streets cleaned up,” Fisher says.
Warner Robins Councilman Kevin Lashley is also the Program Director of a professional cleanup service. Now, he's helping the Fisher family to clean and rebuild their chapel.
"In my opinion, this was the starting point for the storm that came through that did vast amounts of damage through Cochran,” he says.
Councilman Lashley says that while the roads are clear now, you couldn't even drive though some of them until Wednesday, but he says that the whole community has been helping each other to clean up.
"I've watched several companies come through, and the way they've been setting everything aside and getting it in nice, orderly piles, setting it up for other crews to come in and start picking it up, it's been amazing because neighbor helps neighbor more than anything else,” he says.
Councilman Lashley says the chapel is in the homestretch of being rebuilt.