Ringgold Middle School was severely damaged by a tornado on April 27, 2011.RINGGOLD, Ga. — Fourteen-year-olds Riley Tucker and Elissa Chandler have more to worry about than average eighth-grade girls.
Every day when they turn down Tiger Trail to be dropped off at school, they see the remnants of a twister that wrecked their town a year ago. They miss friends who had to move away when their houses were destroyed. They wonder if it could happen again.
“You can’t really get away from it,” said Riley.
Towering reminders of the devastation from April 27, 2011, sit between the windows of the high school and middle school, where backhoes scrape away dirt and crews prepare to pour concrete on a new eighth-grade wing at the middle school. The $5.3 million rebuild is one of the town’s biggest tornado-recovery projects in size and cost.
The project is expected to be completed by December, in time for next year’s eighth-graders to spend a few final months at their intended school. But it will be a year of changes. Eighth-graders will start their year at Ringgold High School, then shift to the newly rebuilt middle school, then return to the high school as freshmen.