Chattanooga area storm damage, recovery

After the facility was destroyed during the April 27 tornadoes, a larger McDonald's was rebuilt on Alabama Highway in Ringgold, Ga. The restaurant, which reopened Monday, brought back more than 40 original crew members and gives residents one more option when choosing where to eat.

For thousands of people across the Southeast, April 27 changed their lives. Forty-seven tornadoes tracked through our region, leaving 81 people dead. Times Free Press staff photographers traveled back to areas they visited after the storms to see the recovery six months later.

Watch an aerial video of destruction from severe weather that struck the Tennessee Valley Wednesday.

Times Free Press reporter Lindsey Young, a resident of North Georgia, drove through the Cherokee Valley Road area of Ringgold, Ga., for a firsthand view of the destruction cause by Wednesday's severe weather.

During a news conference Tuesday, Bill McCollum, chief operating officer of Tennessee Valley Authority, said TVA will work through the summer to rebuild high-voltage transmission lines that were damaged during tornadoes throughout the South last week.