Community to stitch together banner that withstood tornado
A tattered flag that survived the 2014 Columbia tornado and came to symbolize the community’s resilience will begin a special journey at Freedom Fest on July 7.
Last week, First Southern Bank, where the banner flew, presented it to Carlton Thornhill of Hearts of Hope. Following it being on display at the main stage of the patriotic festival, Thornhill plans to take it door to door following the path of the twister starting on Mississippi 13 South. Victim’s families will provide fabric and stitch a small part of it back together while Thornhill records their stories to collect into a book.
“We’ll come back to the bank, and then I’ll go to different churches in the county. It’s going to take me almost a year to get it all done,” he said.
But that’s not all. The New York 911 Foundation is going to send Thornhill fabric from 9/11, and he’s also going to get materials from other national tragedies like the Sandy Hook, Pulse Orlando and Las Vegas shootings.
When the project is complete, the flag will be displayed at the Marion County Historical Museum and Archives.
“Columbia’s 200th birthday starts in February,” Thornhill said. “We are going to present it for that and have it on display for the full year. They can go through the book and find their own stories in the book. Schools can come to see the flag. I want tornado stories and tornado objects in the museum. I want them on the wall where the flag is.”
The flag
Len Cooke was working at First Southern Bank on Dec. 23, 2014, as the tornado struck Columbia. Buildings across the street from the U.S. 98 bank were heavily damaged and employees huddled in the vault as the fierce winds blew through. The tornado killed three people and damaged scores of homes, cars and businesses. Cooke said people knew the weather was getting worse and the potential storm was forming.
“Jordan, our daughter, was home from college and she was out at the house,” he said, “Every now and then she would call us with an update. She was giving us actual updates from the radar as to where it was at, which way it was going and where it was supposed to be at a certain time. We had notified our folks here at the bank. With the holiday season, we had some folks that were off and we didn’t have our full crew here.”
Cooke said they had let the employees know that there was a chance they would have to get in the vault.
“Logan (Cooke’s son) was home for Christmas and he was going have to leave Christmas Day to go back to Starkville to fly down for the Orange Bowl to play. It was Steve Miller, Burt Rowell and Logan and I on the front porch watching. The last update I got was from Jordan was that the tornado was crossing (Mississippi) 35 and it was headed northeast toward Broad Street. We were on the front porch thinking that we were going to see it going north-northeast. All of a sudden, it started getting louder, darker and the flag was flying west, from an east wind. It was being sucked back that way. All of a sudden we began hearing something that sounded like a dozer coming through the timber. I’ve always hear people say that it sounds like a freight train, well, it sounded like stuff falling everywhere. It started get real dark and louder … I guess it was coming across (Mississippi) 13 headed this way.”
Cooke said it was then that they rushed employees into the vault.
“We looked and said, ‘Guys, we’d better go,’” he said. “We locked the door to the bank and got in the vault with the rest of the employees. We pulled the door most of the way shut. I remember that somebody said we needed to pray. I remember praying – it was a fast prayer – like a 10 or 15 second prayer. When I said Amen, somebody said that it sure was quick. I said I wanted to leave the Lord plenty of time to work on our behalf.”
The pressure in the vault rose as the bank staff huddled in the vault.
“It was like you were in an airplane,” Cooke said. “I looked at Steve Miller and I squinted my eyes as if to say, ‘I don’t know how much more I can take.’ It was that strong.”
Cooke said he thinks the entire process lasted only 45 second to a minute before they heard a loud thud. When it calmed down, they opened the vault door and looked out.
“I started walking toward the front door and all I could see was the frame of our Merry Christmas sign,” he said. “The sign was gone. When I got to the door, I saw what had happened across the highway. I was amazed that much damage was done that fast.”
It was then that Cooke noticed the flag.
“When I looked out across the highway I knew we as a community were in trouble,” he said. “I also realized how blessed we at the bank really were. We didn’t take a direct hit. The Griners and the Morrises are very vital parts of this bank and to see what they had built demolished like that was difficult. Everybody was trying to get in touch with their families. It’s just a situation that you hope you don’t have to go through anymore.”
Cooke said the flag now has many meanings.
“It’s a symbol of tragedy and a symbol of death, but at the same time it is a symbol of hope and community,” he said. “It’s a symbol of coming together. It needs to be a symbol of life.”
Pictured Above: Stephanie Guidroz, left, of Hearts of Hope, First Southern Bank President Scott Davis and Hearts of Hope’s Carlton Thornhill hold the flag that flew through the tornado. | Photo by Mark Rogers
