Original Time Saver hit by tornado.

Two people were in the store when the tornado hit.

Side view of new store.

Time Saver 10 months later.

The Time Saver convenience store in Cobbtown, Ga. has a remarkably different look than it did 10 months ago. An EF-3 category tornado leveled the original store Mother’s Day morning of last year, leaving behind a pile of bricks and scrap metal.

Store manager of the Time Saver, Joyce Brewer, marveled at the selective nature of the tornado. Brewer said, “There was money laying on the counter that wasn’t even disturbed yet it [the tornado] took concrete blocks clear across the street into the roof of a house.”

According to the National Weather Service, the winds generated by the tornado ranged from about 140 to 150 mph. It would take six months before Brewer and Sandra Cathcart, the cashier on duty the day of the storm, would be able to return to work.

It would also take Krista Johnson and her family six months to return to their home after the tornado hit. Her house, located across the street from the store, also suffered severe damage. Johnson said she was able to move back in just before Thanksgiving Day.

The storm that hit Cobbtown was only one of five tornadoes that struck Georgia that day.

Roosevelt Hall