‘It’s clean up time’: Family plans to rebuild barn destroyed in tornado

CHATSWORTH, Ga. — Seth Ridley said “something” told him to leave work early last Wednesday and thankfully he listened.

If not, Ridley and his 12-year-old son, Peyton, would’ve been in the family’s barn when an EF-1 tornado touched down.

According to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, the tornado’s EF-1 classification is on the lower end of the tornado scale that goes up to EF-6. Winds from an EF-1 tornado are between 86 and 110 mph. This tornado’s path was 150 yards wide.

The hay barn at Leonard Polled Hereford Farm off Ga. Highway 225 in Chatsworth was destroyed.

“We were at our house about 800 feet from the barn watching the storm,” Ridley said. “I could see the wind and rain but not a funnel cloud.”

Ridley said it was around 5 p.m. when the storm came through.

“I kept watching toward the city and could see transformers blowing out, so I knew something was wrong,” he said. “Then it finally passed.”

Ridley said he looked toward the barn and noticed it “looked different,” and that’s when he and his son drove to it to investigate.

“It was leveled and literally looked like someone pushed it over.”

The farm is owned by Sherman Leonard. His daughter, Sherri Leonard, said the family is “very blessed.”

“My son and grandson (Seth and Peyton Ridley) would’ve been putting out bales of hay, but he went home early” she said. “It was nothing but the grace of God.”

Leonard called it a “total loss.” Damages include several pieces of equipment including a tractor, smashed gates and a boat.

“I couldn’t begin to tell you how much all this will cost,” Leonard said. “We intend to build again.”

Leonard said none of her 150 cows were hurt.

“It’s devastating to know something like this can happen in our area,” she said. “We never heard it or knew it was happening at the time.”

Ridley said he also was shocked when he saw all the damage.

“I knew it had to be a tornado but wasn’t sure.” he said. “What got me was there were no warnings.”

He said the storm just “sneaked in. No one knew anything about it, now it’s clean-up time.”