Vaughn-Sunny Side, GA EF3 Tornado – April 27-28, 2011

Mike Porter was in his bedroom when all of a sudden, his window fan flew across the room. He ran into his father Paul’s room and yelled “tornado”! Suddenly, the house collapsed around them. Paul suffered a minor finger injury. Mike survived without injury, and he slept outside that night in a sleeping bag.

John English and his wife Brenda lived across the street from the Porters. John watched out the back door as debris spiraled through his yard while Brenda screamed that the tornado would kill them. John and Brenda’s century-year-old home was torn apart. The English’s emerged without injury and slept in the back of their van that night.

Chrys­ostom Sullivan’s house on Bendview Road was destroyed, and he was crushed under a fallen wall. Several of his ribs were shattered, and a metal shard was impaled through his leg. He pulled himself up onto what was left of his couch and laid there as the rain poured down on him for half an hour. When the rain stopped, he sat there in shock for another hour and a half, bleeding and vomiting onto the floor. It took paramedics the entirety of the night to get to Chrysostom due to the number of downed trees blocking the way.

The Barreto’s home, nearby, was also destroyed. Susan and her daughter Shalena rushed to a closet, but they did not make it in time. Shalena was “sucked” under the bed; it broke on top of her and pinned her to the ground. A cinderblock wall fell onto Susan, knocking out one of her teeth. Sadly, one of their dogs was killed.

The 107-year-old Vaughn United Methodist Church was just remodeled and reopened to the public in January 2011. The tornado removed the rear wall and roof, and it smashed out all of the newly installed stained glass windows. Every tree that surrounded the church was snapped or uprooted. Interestingly, angel figurines that were “light as paper” were left untouched on the church’s piano.