Kat Morris works on a mural inside the newly rebuilt wing of Ringgold Middle School in Ringgold, Ga. The building, which will house eighth grade students and some fine arts classes, was destroyed in the April 2011 tornadoes.
The metallic paint in the outline of a giant tiger shimmers 40 feet high in the new hallway. The floor shines with seven coats of wax. The 17 classrooms sit empty except for new desks, smart boards and projectors.
In a week, the spacious halls will be filled with 230 eighth-grade students, who will get to spend the second half of the year where they couldn’t spend the first — at Ringgold Middle School.
Nearly 20 months ago, Principal Mike Sholl watched his students huddle in the school’s hallways as teachers checked their phones for tornado warning updates. Ultimately, the kids were dismissed early to wait out the storm at home.
There wouldn’t have been a happy outcome if they still had been inside when the F4 tornado swooped through the town on April 27, 2011, taking homes, businesses, lives and both downtown schools.
At the middle school, much of the roof caved in, the air-conditioning vents fell through the floor and chunks of the building were swept away in the 250-mph winds.