LOCAL, PAGE A2
SPORTS, PAGE B1
OPINION, PAGE A4
Multiple groups coming together for relief efforts
Student athletes give back after disaster
Gardner: ‘This is America today’
THE WETUMPKA HERALD Elmore County’s Oldest Newspaper - Established 1898
Wetumpka, AL 36092
50¢
WEDNESDAY • JANUARY 30, 2019
THEWETUMPKAHERALD.COM
VOL. 121, NO. 5
Wind Creek donates $100K to recovery Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis speaks with Wind Creek property manager Kay Simmons after Wind Creek made a donation to the Wetumpka Police Department following the tornado.
By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Employees of Wind Creek Casinos helped in the cleanup immediately after the tornado and now the Poarch Creek Indians have donated $100,000 to three Wetumpka organizations. “As you can see there is so much destruction in the aftermath of the tornado that came through on the 19th,” Wind Creek public relations specialist Kristen Vaughn said. “We’re here to offer a hand.”
Cliff Williams / The Herald
Wind Creek employees traveled around Wetumpka Monday afternoon dropping donations to the Wetumpka Police Department, the First Baptist Church and the First Presbyterian Church. Wetumpka police chief Greg Benton said officials are unsure if the department’s building, which was severely damaged in the tornado, could be salvaged. “Definitely the back part of the building is gone,” Benton said. “We See WIND CREEK • Page A6
‘I know there’s a God now’
Brown pleads guilty to murder By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Woman survives tornado as roof comes off house, ‘Oz’ collectibles stay intact By JIMMY WIGFIELD Managing Editor
With black skies cascading to the ground and a tornado threatening to suck the life out of her, Sharon Watson did the only thing she could do — she stretched out on her bedroom floor with her Chihuahua, Spook, pressed against her back as shattered glass hissed through the air like shrapnel. “I laid down on the floor next to the bed and didn’t know if I would live,” she said. “I felt glass hitting me. It was like knives being thrown at me.” Watson She wondered about her “The Wizard of Oz” collectibles in another room of the house and if she would turn out like Dorothy, whose house was flung into another world by a Kansas tornado in the classic movie. “All I thought about lying on the floor before I blacked out was the house spinning in the tornado, like it did in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” Watson said. “I could feel the house and the See WATSON • Page A3
Jimmy Wigfield / The Herald
Wetumpka tornado survivor Sharon Watson shows where the headboard of her bed sat when the bedroom window blew out. She laid on the floor next to the bed with her dog as the tornado struck.
See BROWN • Page A2
Confederate Memorial Park holds ‘Winter Quarters’ living history event
A handful of reenactors line up for their dinner of cooked cabbage, potatoes and coffee at the Confederate Memorial Park’s ‘Winter Quarters’ on Saturday.
By DONALD CAMPBELL Staff Writer
The air around Marbury came alive with the sounds of men marching and drilling while drums, fifes and bugles sounded out various orders Saturday as approximately 100 reenactors clad in various shades of gray and tan took part in Confederate Memorial Park’s first “Winter Quarters,
Donald Campbell / The Herald
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Efrem Brown took a plea deal Monday in Elmore County Circuit Court to avoid trial for the murder of Tony Carr. Brown, 56, of Elmore accepted a plea and admitted guilt in killing Carr in a Holtville autoshop on April 16, 2018. Senior assistant district attorney Mandy Johnson stated Brown in the hearing what she felt the evidence would show in the hearing before Judge Bill Lewis. “We believe the evidence will show he was employed by the victim, that he was with the victim the day of the crime. He led law enforcement to a firearm with his fingerprints on it used in the crime and his footprints at the scene,” Johnson Johnson was surrounded by family members of Carr as she presented an outline of the
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1862” living history event. Portraying Company I of the 22nd Alabama Infantry Regiment, also known as the “Pike Grays,” the reenactors gave visitors a chance to see what life was like for soldiers in the Civil War during the winter. “This has been a successful event so far,” Calvin Chappelle with Confederate Memorial Park said. “This has been an accurate See CONFEDERATE • Page A5
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