West Point residents pick up the pieces after Sunday’s tornado

Published 4:39 pm Sunday, March 26, 2023

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WEST POINT — It was devastating for Faye Pike to see the home she was born in many years ago destroyed by Sunday morning’s tornado, but she was greatly relieved to learn that her sister’s granddaughter who was in the home at the time was unhurt. She had taken shelter in a bathtub when the house around her was completely leveled.

“I’m grateful for that and for the fact my sister, Sarah Adams, was away in Florida this weekend,” Pike said.

Pike lives on the west side of Highway 29, directly across from where her sister and her sister’s granddaughter live. Pike’s home received some roof damage but was left largely intact. The two houses across the road, like a number of homes in the North West Point community, were totally destroyed by a massive tornado. The east side of the highway bore the brunt of the damage. Many structures on the east side of Highway 29 were significantly damaged or totally destroyed. Houses along 1st Avenue and Samples Road were hard hit as well.

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Tamela Austin, who teaches at THINC Academy in LaGrange, was out surveying the damage early Sunday afternoon. She lives nearby on Fuller Road. Her home wasn’t damaged, but the storm was a frightful experience for her.

“I was awakened around 4:45 a.m. by a hail storm,” she said. “That was bad enough, but a couple of hours after that the sirens went off warning of another storm. I expected the worst when I heard that sound of an approaching freight train.”

The rain gauge at her house recorded more than four inches of rain this weekend.

“There have been at least three tornadoes to have touched down in Troup County since January,” Austin said. “One of them caused damage near the school where I teach.”