Wednesday marks 1 year since deadly Bryan Co. tornado

BRYAN COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - It’s been one year since a deadly EF-4 tornado ripped through Bryan County.

WTOC spoke with the chairman of the Bryan County Board of Commissioners and he says the response from this community over the last year has been remarkable.

The tornado traveled 11 miles and reached winds up to 165 mph with a maximum width of 1300 yards, damaging countless buildings and taking one life. From that night on, the leader says he’s proud of how people in and around Bryan County pushed forward.

“Just coming together as a community helped a whole lot to begin the process, but we’ve come a long way because it as a lot of damage. It was the largest insurance claim in ACCG’s history, which is association of county commissioners, it was their largest claim in their history so that took some time to work through,” said Carter Infinger, Chairman, Bryan County Board of Commissioners.

County buildings like the courthouse, jail, and admin offices were all badly damaged, along with countless other private buildings. The chairman says there is still plenty of work to do, with supply chain issues forcing construction to take longer than they’d like. But, he says in comparison to what some of the locals are dealing with when it comes to their homes, that damage is manageable.

“We had different teams of people on the ground helping the folks that have lost everything and that’s kind of the human side. Now if you go back and look at some of these neighborhoods, they’re not all built back yet, just like our facilities aren’t all built back yet, and some people aren’t building back. They just said you know what we’re done and they’re moving on.”

For the time being, Infinger says many county employees are working out of trailers, with details about the timelines of reconstruction for county buildings coming later.