OSG High: Ringgold's Road Back...

((HT: Newschannel9 WTVC-TV Chattanooga, WBRC-TV/MyFoxAL.com))

Mother Nature is a fickle woman...

She is random, forgetful, forceful, uncaring, and altogether unforgiving...

Her effects are forever and her lessons are hard...
Evidence Lesson Plan 1:


You can't help but be moved by all these communities that have been wiped off the map, and when it comes to help, it's more of a "where do you start?" mentality instead of the normal "let's start here and move forward."

Mississippi has theirs, Alabama has theirs, and Georgia has theirs...

In Georgia it's Ringgold...

Here's Jana Barnello with County Superintendent Denia Reese for a preview...


But you have to start "somewhere" regardless of the level of starting...

When you travel up Interstate 75 from Atlanta to Chattanooga, there is one half-mile swath of downed trees at mile marker 297. You can still smell the pine...

Entering Catoosa County, Exit 295 is fine. Exit 300 is fine.
Exit 298 is far from it...

Looking east to west, the Baymont Inn is gone. The track of the tornado follows the overpass at the off-ramp. The Ruby Tuesdays restaurant looks like a bomb dropped on it- something out of the realism of "Saving Private Ryan." And the driving range is now an "olf range" with netting that has fallen down off its wooden stilts. Any elevated, lighted sign that would draw possible patrons- whether it was the Wendy's, the Waffle House, or any of the gas stations along the line just has a shell of itself to see. You have to guess, now, as to what you want to do if you classify as "local traffic."

The irony of the Baymont is, that if you come from north to south, there's a billboard- untouched- that trumpets the virtues of the values of the Inn as a way station... just before Exit 298...

Most people are trying to just get something of a life together now...

And they did that through baseball...

Round One of the triple-a playoffs was against Riverwood. You couldn't find a seat at the team's new home away from home- Heritage High. The Generals opened up their campus to the Tigers- wanting them to do what they needed to work. The kids from Ringgold High won't be back this year...

For anything...

But for one day leading into a weekend, the second that Ringgold gets to try and piece its life back together, the team's high-powered offense got to take out their frustrations of not having schools, homes, and the loss of two of their classmates.

All the signage was moved over from what's left of the baseball diamond to hang from the Heritage fencing. And eight runs in the first two innings of Game One led to a 13-3 and a 10-1 sweep.

But in all the cursive Ringgold blue, you saw relief (albeit temporary) and a sense of purpose. There are t-shirts for all to see that maintain an idea of "United We Stand" and "We Are Ringgold."

They all are... and they all will...

Fixes are long-term goals that need short-term solutions. The idea of one of those transmogrifiers that Calvin and Hobbes had in-house (that, amazingly, looked like a cardboard box) could transport everyone to that end of the work to view an instant success. But we're all now in a different place...

The new normal...

A normal not of our own choosing or device, but one forced upon us by all those whims from a mother of a Mother...

The baseball team gets Columbus next- and that's a tall order by any stretch of the definition. For one day, though, Ringgold was back on top. And you look to take that one day on top and turn it into a series of the same thing...

A successful repetition for completion of the long-term goal...

Here's Barnello's post-game piece...