The frame of the trailer in which one of the two Trenton, Ga., men killed in Wednesday’s tornado landed in the yard of a relative of the second victim, Dade County Coroner Johnny Ray Gray said Saturday morning.
The trailer was owned by Donnie Walston, who perished during the storm, Coroner Gray said. The second victim, Jerry Williams, died when Village Green Apartment complex was struck by the tornado.
“Those were the only two we lost in Dade County,” he noted.
Village Green Apartments were “completely demolished,” the coroner said. “The only thing they can do is bulldoze them.
Dade County’s deputy coroner handled the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Coroner Gray noted.
“I was on vacation,” he explained. “We had gone down to Florida to watch the shuttle lift off.”
He arrived back home on Thursday morning, he said, and pretty much all he’s done since then is deal with the aftermath.
Yesterday, he said, his deputy took him out to the site where authorities found what was left of Mr. Walston’s trailer.
“Its frame landed in the yard of a relative of (Mr. Williams),” he explained. “That’s all that was left, just the frame.”
At his home on Lookout Mountain, he said, “We’ve got water, but no power . . . I have a newspaper, but I haven’t read it.”
Consequently, he said, he’s been pretty much out of touch with what’s happening in the rest of the world.
“Did Prince William ever get married?” he asked, chuckling.
He’s spent Saturday morning tracing the track the tornado made as it tore through the community, Coroner Gray said.
“You can see where it came down off Sand Mountain and went on across the valley all the way to Lookout Mountain,” he said.