The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • A3

Filename: A3-MAIN-AJCD0430-AJCD DateTime created: Apr 29 2011 Username: SPEEDDRIVER10 Magenta Black 3A AJCD Saturday, Apr 30, 2011 MAI 3A Saturday, April 30, 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A3 Bartow families grateful to be alive vIBSShEI Amid wreckage of lost homes, residents rejoice and start their recovery. John Boatwright volunteers with 2nd Genesis Ministries to provide food for the neighborhood of Crowe Springs, outside Cartersville in BartOW County, Which lost houses but no lives. Bob Andres bandresajc.com were destroyed or damaged. John Williams and his family his wife, Cristina, their 4-year-old son, Kohl, and daughter, Abigail, 14 months -climbed out from under rubble Wednesday with the only wound being a gash in John's back. He looked at the bare foundation that had been their house and rejoiced.

"I said, 'We're alive, and I love you, and we made it Williams recalled. Thursday, they spent recovering. Friday was a day of salvaging. A family member found a cameo that once belonged to Cristina Williams' grandmother under some drywall. Cristina Williams, braving a forest of glass, shards of metal and wood splinters, found the birth certificate of one of her children in a tangle of broken trees 100 yards away.

A neighbor brought back two albums of their wedding pictures. They found a few toys, photos, one of their file cabinets with a drawer building their lives. When God gives you the gift of grace and an opportunity to understand your past and get your life back together, it changes you, he said. "So now I'm giving it back," he said. Boatwright was among a swarm of friends, family and supporters helping the rural community as people calmly and sometimes even with laughs picked their way through a splintered forest of two-by-fours that had been houses.

As they worked, clouds of pink and yellow insulation waved from trees that were standing at every angle but straight up. Knowing the death tolls in Alabama and northwest Georgia, they recognized in every family member's face a gift of a day that might not have been. No one here was killed or even seriously injured, though a dozen houses were shredded. An estimated 50 to 75 houses in nearby communities just east of 1-75 By Christopher Quinn cquinnajc.com John Boatwright talked a little Friday about rebuilding life and restoration as he sweated beside a hot grill, cooking hot dogs and chicken in the tornado-flattened community of Crowe Springs outside of Cartersville. "I had a second chance at life," the 57-year-old Boatwright said.

The self-professed former down-and-outer on the streets of downtown Atlanta was given hope by a minister from Bartow County, Wesley Morris, who came to feed the homeless once a month. Friday, Boatwright was bringing some of that love back to Bartow County as people there took the first steps in re get hurt," he said. They talked to an insurance adjuster and were trying to decide whether to rebuild or move on. Move on, Sonja Miller said. "What drew me to that place, when we got married, you could sit here and there were all those beautiful trees on the hillside," she said.

"And all that's gone. "I can't stand the thought of rebuilding. It is just not going to be the same." 'Angels' come to woman's of documents missing and a bag of John Williams' golf clubs. "All that's left is stuff that can be replaced, or maybe doesn't need to be replaced," John Williams said. Cody Miller, another of the dozen or so homeowners whose houses were flattened, was away when the tornado hit.

His wife, Sonja, and 18-year-old son survived in a closet, the only part of the structure left standing. "I can't believe they didn't She found her way to the battered pickup and crawled in to wait out the tempest. "Then it got quiet," she said. The next day, Gilreath's sister came down from Gwinnett County to help, but the job was bigger than the two of them. That's when Maurice showed.

Within an hour, he had a dozen people helping. On Friday, even more arrived. "They are angels," Gilreath said. Merrit Fry, 12, asked his mother to let him miss school Friday to help out. "I couldn't just sit by and do nothing," Merrit said.

"People needed help." Still, Maurice had to take Gilreath's computer and flat-screen TV amazingly, still in Bkl' Tornado wrecks mobile home. On the down side, looters targeting damaged trailer parks. By Marcus K. Garner mgarnerajc.com GRIFFIN Disasters can bring out the best and worst in people. Jerry Gilreath has seen both sides in the wake of the tornado that tore through Sunny Side, a community outside Griffin in Spalding County.

On Friday, volunteers helped Gilreath, whose mobile home was twisted around a tree, sort through the remnants of her belongings. And they helped her find safe storage for the few valuables that survived, necessary because looters have targeted the area. "People have been taking refrigerators, hot-water heaters, air conditioner units, whatever stuff they could load up quickly," Spalding County health inspector Gene Polk told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We were actually passing water out to folks we thought were residents, and they were there to take things." Spalding County Sheriff's Department Lt. David Gibson said deputies had received three reports of looting since tornadoes struck the area around 12:30 a.m.

Thursday. Offsetting the mischief were countless acts of kindness, including the half-dozen people helping Gilreath and her landlords clean up. "Something just told me to stop and help," said Drew Maurice, who pulled up to Gil-reath's yard Thursday afternoon and found her crying. Maurice had volunteered before with area an nonprofit, We Care, Inc. He felt compelled to lend a hand "and even call for more help," he said.

"What do you do when your Crunley help clean up what remains of Jerry Gilreath's mobile home. The dwelling was flipped several inside, then wrapped around a tree during Wednesday's violent storms near Griffin. Phiiskinnerpskinnerajc.com aid tact and put them in storage so they wouldn't be stolen. Looting at the nearby Pon-derosa Mobile Home park made residents there afraid to leave for temporary shelter, said Polk, of the Spalding County health department. Residents there described watching a man prey upon the storm's victims.

"He got a group of teenagers and started loading up a pickup," resident and property employee Rebecca Meninger said. "I saw his tag and called the police." Lt. Gibson said one individual was in custody and being held for questioning related to looting from trailer parks. There have been no charges. a chance, said Spald ing County Coroner Sonny Foster.

Lamar County Investigators believe 63-year-old Ellen Gunterand her husband, 73-year-old Paul Gunter, of Barnesville, were in bed when their home was demolished. Dade County DonnieWalston, 47, was killed when his mobile home was blown across the street, Coroner Johnny Ray Gray told the AJC. Jerry Williams, 49, worried by storm reports, was checking on a friend when her apartment was demolished. Gray said Williams was killed, but his friend survived. Volunteers Cherie Poss (left) and times by high winds with Gilreath entire life is wrapped around an oak tree?" he asked.

"If something like this happened to me or to my family, I would want somebody to stop and help." Gilreath, 63, lives alone. She had moved into her trailer only 10 days earlier. "I thank God for them," she said of the many people who continued to show up Friday. The night of the storm, Gilreath was still settling into her new digs with her three dogs when she heard the tornado approaching. She crawled under her kitchen table and braced for whatever was to come.

"The floor raised up and shook to one side, then to the next," Gilreath said. "The washing machine toppled over on me and I was pinned down." among storm the AJC. Also killed were their neighbors Robert Jones, 47, Jack Es-tep, 61, and Holly Readus, 26, Hullander said. All were killed in their homes, which were destroyed by the powerful storm. Former longtime Ringgold High School Principal Rhea Mc-Clannahan, 86, also was killed when his house collapsed, Hullander said.

Those deaths made up the majority of 15 people killed by violent storms that raked the state. Among the widespread destruction in numerous Georgia counties, the deaths in the Eric Her home began shuddering and buckling. "Something soft flew past me, and I reached out and grabbed it," Gilreath said. "It was a pillow. I put it over my head and hung on for dear life." The entire structure pitched over, then began tumbling, she said.

One wall was ripped out as the trailer rolled. Then her home split in half. "Somehow, I fell out onto the ground," Gilreath said. "I couldn't see anything, but heard the most awful crash." In the flickering lightning, she could see that her mobile home was no more. "I had to get to my truck," she recalled thinking.

"I knew it might be destroyed, but it would be better than nothing." fatalities Cherokee Valley neighborhood seemed especially cruel. The victims all lived within 200 yards of each other near a crossroads tucked between mountain ridges. Their homes were ground down to their foundations in a community where long-timers say even those not related by blood share close bonds. "How do you bury a family of four?" said Becky Kile, a second cousin to Christopher Black, whose twisted wreck of a home was nearby. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Some other Georgians killed in the storms Family of 4 Also killed were three neighbors in Cherokee Valley community. By Alexis Stevens apstevensajc.com A family of four is among the eight killed by storms in Catoosa County. The Black family Christopher, 47, Pamela, 46, Cody, 21, and Chelsea, 16, were found in a ditch area yards away from where their house previously stood on Cherokee Valley Road, Coroner Vanita Hullander told Rabun County Elbert Earl Patton, 83, an Atlanta real estate developer and former state senator, was killed at Lake Burton. Patton was a past board chairman of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Friends said he was alone when his home was struck.

Spalding County Charlie Green, 55, a former plumber stricken by a stroke and partially paralyzed, was killed when the storms blew his mobile home 100 yards away. Jamie White, 22, was Green's caregiver and a single mother of three. Both were huddled in the bathroom when the storm hit. Neither stood Black 3A AJCD File name: A3-MAIN-AJCD0430-AJCD DateTime created: Apr 29 2011 Username: SPEEDDRIVER10 Magenta.