Hey, folks, Libba here. We've got a special program preview for y'all today about a great presentation we have on Thursday, April 12 at 06:30 p.m. At the Gainesville branch of the Hall County Library system. That's the one downtown our education director, Marie Bartlett will be presenting. And she'll have some special items on display from our archive, all about the tornado of 1936, impactful event in Gainesville's history with a lot of personal anecdotes and experiences to learn from. Now, some of you might already know that the 1936 tornado brought Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Gainesville in both 1936 and 1938 in support of rebuilding the city after the devastation of the tornado. On Saturday, April 20 at 02:00 p.m. The Northeast Georgia History center will present a free documentary film screening of a a president in our midst, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Georgia. This has been aired on GPB and PBS. And it's going to be a great opportunity to learn even more because we'll have a q and A afterwards with our special guests. Now this free documentary screening is going to be presented at the John Esper center for Performing Arts right across the street from the museum. And we'll have our special guest, as I mentioned, Abbott Massey, who's chairman of the Little White House Advisory committee, Dan White, producer of the documentary, and doctor Hal raper, who portrays FDR and is a member of the Little White House Advisory committee. So after the screening, we'll have a reception at the museum. We'll have artifacts on display from Roosevelt's time in Gainesville, some really neat items, and we appreciate it. If you do register online, just go to our website, www.negahc.org. So that's ne gah Georgia hch historycenter.org. Or you can call us at 770297 5900 during our normal hours. All right, so now onto a sneak peek at what you'll learn about the 1936 tornado with our special guest from the Hall county library system, Rhonda Sanders.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to then again the podcast of the Northeast Georgia History Center. I am Marie Barlett, the director of the Ada Mae Ivester Education center here. And today I have with me Rhonda Sander, genealogy and local history librarian with the Hall County Library. And you can see her at the Gainesville library right off the square. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you for having me.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I know you've been on the podcast before, but for everyone who might have not had a chance to listen to that excellent podcast we did about genealogy and how your local library can help you with that. Can you give us a little bit about your background?

I do have a master's in library science. I have been with the Hall county library system for 30 years now, and they jokingly tell me that I am in charge of the dead and the moldy. So I'm the one to go to about things past. Not so much present, but definitely past.

That's wonderful. And one of the things that you told me that you do is a lot of programs and programming about the past, about local history, people's families. And you asked the Northeastern History center to come and do a program about the Gainesville tornado, the one that happened in 1936, to be exact. And why did you decide to host a program about the 1936 tornado in Gainesville?

Well, I moved to Gainesville about 35 years ago, and when I moved to Gainesville, it was very common for me to have a conversation with people about the 1936 tornado. These were people who had either lived through it or their parents had been in it or their grandparents. So it was firsthand experience. And these people were talking about the tornado as if it happened last month, not 50 years before. When the April 6 came around last year, there was very little coverage about it. It wasn't that much in the radio or the tv or the newspapers. And I feel we are losing touch with that history and how important it was. That was one of the worst days in Hall County's history, but it was also brought out the best in everybody in the community and in the state, in United States.

So it's really important to remember it. Yes, definitely remember, because if we don't remember, we forget.

Yes.

So, as you were saying, the tornado is probably one of the most momentous historical events, natural disasters, in Hall county history. How did the tornado impact Gainesville?

Actually, it's raining in the top ten of devastations in the United States still today, and it impacted Gainesville as far as there were over 200 deaths. There were over a thousand people who were injured. Downtown Gainesville was destroyed. A large part of the business section was burned down to the ground. And it brought out the best because Mister Bryce, who actually worked for the Atlanta newspaper, was able to go to the depot, get a hold of their radio, excuse me, their telephone, which was actually still working at the time, a miracle. And he knew the people of the Atlanta Journal. He was able to get through to them, ask them to get it on the radio. It was put out on WSB radio within just a few minutes after the tornado hitting and people started responding and coming to help Gainesville. That's what they needed. The cadets at Riverside Military Academy, Georgia College, came down. They had women's organizations groups showing up. Police officers and firemen from all over the state were showing up at their own vehicles. A lot of people are familiar with the people from the Georgia Power and Bell south telephone to telegraph came in and brought their own crews. It was just an unbelievable event that brought everybody together.

In our exhibit that we have about the tornado in our galleries, there is a list of all of the organizations who came and helped, or at least most of them. As you said, there are a lot, and there's the WPA, the CCC. But my favorite on that list is the good people of Dawsonville with picks and shovels.

Oh, my goodness. I hadn't seen that one.

That is one of the ones that is listed. I just think that's so fun or like a fun name for their group because it's just people who came with their picks and their shovels. You know, they don't, they're not a formal organization, but they're good people who wanted to come and help. And I think that's part of the legacy of the tornado is the good that came out of such a terrible situation. And I'm sure that is one of the things that stuck with people who lived through it. And I wanted to get your thoughts about what do you think the legacy of this event is in Gainesville?

It brought about the rebuilding of Gainesville, obviously, because it was destroyed, but that brought about better paved streets in Gainesville, the construction of a new fire station, because the Gainesville fire station was literally destroyed because it was crushed, the courthouse and the city hall had to be rebuilt. There was a forewarned runner of the modern fire and safety compliance structures because of this tornado. The Cooper Cooper Pant factory fire, which killed over 70 people, was what brought about the adoption of enforcement of new building codes in Gainesville. And that was to minimize large scale devastations. So it was a forerunner for the United States. But what I remember the most is when I was hired at the library, there was a big orange and black sign right in the front of the building that said official tornado shelter. A lot of buildings, government buildings, because of the 36 tornadoes, were built to be tornado shelters to help people out.

We have one of those signs in our stairwell here. And I think especially for people who have lived through it or they heard stories about their parents or their grandparents living through it. Those are very important because there is that trauma, that generational trauma of, oh, no. When there is a tornado siren that goes off, which they didn't have during 36 tornado, which is one of the reasons why it was so devastating and so many people were injured and perished in it, is because they didn't know it was coming at them. They had no idea. So lots of things happened because of this disaster that brought about improvements in safety concerns and safety measures in just public announcements and also in building structures and codes. So if you would like to learn more about the 36th tornado, the Northeast Georgia History center will be doing a program at the Gainesville Library, which is just right off the square on April 11 at 06:30 p.m. And we would love to see you there. Also, I encourage everybody, if you haven't, if you're ever on the square in Gainesville, along one of the posts that is on the square as you are, you know, walking into the center of the square, I think it's right across from Atlas Pizza. There is a plaque on one of the brick pillars, and it is a plaque about the tornado. So it tells a little bit about the story of the tornado and the people that it affected. So if you're ever just walking in downtown Gainesville and you're interested in history, I encourage everybody to go and read that plaque because you're standing right where most of the devastation happened. Also, if you're ever in downtown Gainesville, I recommend going to Roosevelt Square, which we'll talk a little bit more about that in the upcoming presentation. But FDR and the city of Gainesville have a special relationship, and that really came about, then again, because of the tornado. So I recommend people going to visit that monument as Georgia get to talk to Andrews collect.

Also, in the month of April, we will be having a pictorial display at our Springs library. It was a grant we got from PBS and from the Friends of the library. And I really encourage anybody who's in that area and interested in history. Go and see it. You will be amazed at the devastation. We have a great photographic display.

One of the reasons why we have so many wonderful photographs of the tornado is because of insurance. People who worked for the insurance agencies and companies came and very well documented the devastation. If you're interested as well in more information about the 1936 tornado, the History center also is the only place to publish the book called A City Laid Waste, which is all about the 36th tornado. You can find more about that on our website. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. Rhonda. And also thank you for the opportunity to come and speak at the Gainesville Library about this significant event in Gainesville history.