One year after Athens County’s worst natural disaster in more than a decade, much of the damage has been healed, but some gashes remain in the local landscape, and there is still jagged glass in some windowpanes.
“It looked like a warzone,” said Fred Davis, executive director of Athens County Emergency Management Agency. “Many people’s lives were in a pile of rubble.”
The tornado — the region’s first in 37 years — hit Matheny Road in York Township and Pine-Air Village trailer park in The Plains the hardest, destroying homes of many low-income individuals, Davis said. The storm damaged 403 properties in Athens County.
“Many people who got hit didn’t have insurance,” he said. “They have to get the money from somewhere.”
Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland declared a state of emergency in Athens, Meigs and Perry counties, proportioning $1.6 million in aid for recovery efforts by removing debris, providing shelter and donating money and supplies, Davis said.
Pamela Martino, executive director of the Athens County Chapter of the Red Cross, said the organization responded to the emergency immediately and provided meals, cleanup kits, bottled water and other necessities to the victims.
The tornado caused the most severe damage in Athens County in a decade and was declared a national emergency by the Red Cross, Martino said.
With the help of the Red Cross, the Plains United Methodist Church gave out more than 10,000 meals in eight days, said Joel Harbarger, pastor of the church.
“The damage was horrible,” Harbarger said. “But people showed how good they could be.”
Many people volunteered their time and donated their resources to help out others they didn’t even know simply because they were in need,
Harbarger said.
“Folks who maybe didn’t even like each other still helped because they were neighbors,” he said. “It’s the glory of the small town.”
Harbarger’s church, along with several others, recently funded the construction of a new home for a man whose mobile home was destroyed in the storm. Like many other victims of the disaster, Harbarger said, the man lost some possessions that cannot be replaced.
“For some, even after repairs are made, the recovery doesn’t just end,” Harbarger said. “This tornado changed their lives.”
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