FORT VALLEY, Ga. — Winter weather has made top headlines this week, but folks living in Fort Valley remembered a very different weather event on February 18. 46 years ago, EF-2 tornado swept through parts of Peach County.
Current Peach County fire chief and EMA director Jeff Doles says he was 14 in the year 1975.
He says he went to high school in Marshallville, but returned to find downtown Fort Valley torn apart.
"Right after baseball practice, about 4:00, 4:30, we saw this real dark cloud over town. When we got into town, we started seeing the destruction," says Doles.
"I remember my dad was the chairman of the county commission at the time and there was some significant damage to the roof of the courthouse and we spent most of the night repairing the roof of the courthouse," he says.
Doles says there was one death in the county tied to the tornado, and after visits from the governor and FEMA, it was ultimately up to the people of Peach County to rebuild.
"A lot of it was put on the locals and put on the people to help themselves," Doles says.
Doles says in the years that followed, the county was forced to re-evaluate.
"If you'll notice downtown Fort Valley has no overhead utilities. Everything is underground now," he says, "So that ice and wind and tornadoes and things would not be as damaging to the electrical grid in the downtown area."
Doles says there's also over 20 warning sirens that are computer-controlled and go off when there's severe weather coming, but despite the advances they've made, locals still talk about the tornado of 1975.