Twister

The Digital Library of Georgia has pictures and film from the 1936 Tornado that devastated Gainesville, Georgia. A search of the CTC catalog for tornado pulled up 17 titles. It is intriguing to note what gets pulled up with a word search. I did find a Project Gutenberg title A full description of the Great Tornado in Chester County, Pennsylvania published in 1877.

There are no photographs. The two line drawings complement the words to illustrate what happened. The author describes the path of the storm. The individuals affected by the tornado are quoted. The description of the damage includes an estimate of the monetary loss. There is a list at the end of the 'book' noting the name of the person and the monetary loss.

The comparison between this book and the 1936 Gainesville tornado information is fascinating. This book, even without photos, is personal. You begin to know the people who were affected by the storm.

 A picture may be worth a thousand words but a thousand well chosen words create a picture that can't be duplicated.

-kss