The giant skeleton at the intersection of South Lee Street and Glessner has reappeared. Jonathan Hobbs talked about how he had prepared for the storm. “We laid the skeleton down the day before, because I feel like he was gonna probably blow away.”

When asked if he did anything else to prepare, he stated he bought wine and cheese. Hobbs reported they didn’t have any significant damage. “We had nothing that was actually a problem. No limbs down really, no big limbs.”

Matthew Hightower talked about preparing for the storm by getting supplies. He described his usual routine preparing for a storm. “We normally just get everybody together and make sure everybody’s fine.”

When asked if he had weathered any big storms before, he replied; “that was the first.”

Crystal Pritchett also talked about preparing for the storm. “We went to Food Lion, but we were late getting there, because they were all out of water. We did find some bottled water, and like, one loaf of bread.”

Pritchett told how she had also been preparing for her grandkids to come during the weekend when she went shopping. “Their store had already been raided earlier in the day.”

She talked about how her family had prepared their home. “We had brought everything in and put it in the garage.” She noted that she didn’t see any downed limbs or damage. “Actually, I think the wind is fiercer today that what I saw last night.”

Pritchett compared it to her experience with Opal. “I didn’t want to stay yesterday. We lived in Lee County Alabama back in ’95 when Opal hit, and it [came] ashore as a category 5, and we were only three hours from the coast, and it was fast moving, we were on the Eastern wall of it.”

She told what it was like seeing the extreme winds bend trees over during Opal. “I thought we were going to die that night.”

Pritchett told how the experience had made an impact. “I said I’d never do that again. And then this storm started off as a one, then a two, then a three, and then before it made landfall, it hit a four. So I was really freaking out last night, but it turned out to go East of us, and we got the western side of it, which isn’t as bad. So that was a relief.”

While many residents noted little damage, a few street lights were out. Braden Smith was working on a light at the intersection of Forsyth and Mayo Street the morning after the storm. Smith works for the contractor Stelson Sigma, which in turn works for the State of Georgia.

Public works director Jim Littlefield commented on the aftermath of the storm. “We were blessed. Unfortunately, some other areas were hit harder. Public Works has been opening up roads where heavy equipment was needed.”

Mayor Joey Recker reports that all utilities are functioning in Plains, all roads are open, and that the peanut festival and all festivities for President Carter’s 100th birthday are continuing as planned.