By Marie Mulvenna

“It was like napalm without any fire.” Father Ray Horan, assistant pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Athens, thus described the devastation that hit the city in last week’s tornado, termed by Governor Jimmy Carter “the worst natural disaster ever to hit Georgia.”

Although no deaths were reported among parishioners of St. Joseph’s, Father Horan said that many were injured and property damage was “unbelievable.” He described homes without roofs, areas completely stripped of trees, crushed cars, homes wrenched from their foundations, and the complete demolishing of two trailer parks. “Pieces of clothing, furniture, and pieces of the trailers themselves are hanging from trees along the Athens bypass. It’s eerie and indescribable,” he added.

The storm hit Athens around 7 p.m. Saturday night and cut a path 100-200 yards in width about seven blocks north of the church on Prince Street. Father Horan said two predominantly Catholic areas, Holiday Estates and Forest Heights, had been badly hit and were without power, water, roofs, etc. On Sunday, Father Horan and pastor Father Michael Woods climbed into a yellow van and managed to get through roadblocks into the badly hit areas. “We had to see if our people were alright,” Father Horan said and added with a laugh that the van looked like one belonging to the power company so they were practically escorted through roadblocks. “I told Father Woods not to open his mouth because his Irish brogue would surely give us away.”

Father Horan said the homeless were soon accommodated in apartments readily made available by local apartment owners and described the response of the town as “unreal and wonderful.” Father Woods spent the night at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens where some 120 citizens were taken for injuries sustained in the tornado.

Canteen trucks canvassed the town, providing food and warm drinks for the homeless of Athens, which is estimated to have received $7 million worth of damage.

At St. Philip Benizi parish in Jonesboro, Sister Priscilla Klatt reported that the tornado had hit “mildly.” Sister said an area close to the church had been hit with about five homes damaged but the people had all been spared injury and have since received shelter.

In Conyers, Right Rev. Dom Augustine Moore, O.C.S.O., Abbot of the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit, reported that the monastery itself had been spared. “God was very good to us, even though we were without lights and power for 24 hours,” Dom Augustine said. Following the tornado Dom Augustine and several other monks from the monastery went into the heart of Conyers where damage was extremely severe. “We helped out in town until 3 a.m. Sunday morning.” Dom Augustine said the main portion of their aid consisted of “taking homeless people to the houses of relatives, directing traffic and delivering huge amounts of the monastery bread.”

Dom Augustine said the monks had offered the use of the monastery for homeless families and contacts with the Red Cross would bring some families to the monastery for temporary shelter. He said 100 hospital cots and 200 blankets had been taken from the monastery infirmary into Conyers for use at a public school that was opened for shelter.

Dom Augustine described the response of people as “amazing” and said the action to assist came so quickly and was so helpful to the city which suffered extremely severe damage. He related a tremendous amount of damage to property close to the monastery, adding with a chuckle that one hermitage belonging to the monastery had collapsed in the tail end of the tornado. “Fortunately, nobody was in it at the time.” He said a trailer park was totally demolished, homes near an industrial park suffered severe damage and many homes in the northside section were hit quite heavily.

Large supplies of plastic material were taken from the monastery on Monday to provide temporary window coverage for badly hit residences. He added that the monastery had been deluged with phone calls on Sunday and Monday – not from people seeking help, he explained, but from abbots from all around the country “who were sure we had been blown right out of Conyers.”