Described as "resembling a red, whirling funnel coming up Main Street", a tornado struck in the evening hours of April 25, 1929. Beginning just south of Macon, it spun wrath on to Cochran, Dexter, Emanuel County, and Bullock County, apparently coming out of nowhere other than clear skies. The terrible storm took the lives of at least 87 people and injured scores more throughout the middle Georgia area. 34 souls were lost in Statesboro with 70 injured. 19 were taken in Metter, a short distance away with 9 children in one home, 4 children in another and yet 3 in another. Rain and hail destroyed crops and damaged peach orchards. My Granny Elkins who was living in that area was spared disaster but as was her custom, she prayed and remembered those who were injured and whose lives were lost. Following is her account of the devastating tornado in her own words.
THE GEORGIA TORNADO
It was late one April evening, back in nineteen twenty-nine,
A great tornado struck our land, and left a dreadful sign.
All those who saw it coming were filled with terrible fright,
It was like black smoke rolling and followed by a light.
Sometimes it soared higher and then would touch the ground,
It was like a mighty airship and had such roaring sound.
It split great trees into splinters and shattered houses down
The mansions like the cabins were scattered over the ground.
So many were made homeless, not a shelter over their head,
There were many laying wounded, and many laying dead.
It was a bad destruction, just thinking of the cost,
But it did not stop at that, so many lives were lost.
Although it was the work of God, and we should humbly say,
It is He who giveth everything, and He who takes away.
Mary Ella Thigpen Elkins
