Local officials and residents say most of the damaged parts of the Ringgold, Ga., area hit by the tornado were rebuilt relatively quickly.

RINGGOLD, Ga. — It doesn’t seem like five years ago.

Several Ringgold residents agree on that much. For some it seems like yesterday. For others, it seems like a lifetime ago.

But all agree that the memory of the April 27, 2011, tornado that killed eight people and demolished numerous businesses remains on their minds.

“I didn’t see it, but I heard it,” recalled Debra Wells. “It seemed so dark. The sky just seemed filled with lightning. But that roar was so close. I knew it was going to be bad. Honestly, it could have been even worse.”

She said the memory of that night is still vivid in her mind.

Carol Estes was out of town when it hit. She recalls frantically calling friends and relatives the next day trying to make sure they were all alive and well. They were. But when she got back to town a few days later she was stunned.

“I don’t know what I was expecting. I’d read about how extensive the damage was. I think I’d even seen some shots of it. But I wasn’t prepared. It seemed like a war zone, just all bombed out,” she said.

But she looked around recently and noted that it seemed like such a long time ago, largely because there’s so little sign of what happened that night.

“A lot has been rebuilt, and if you hadn’t been living here, didn’t know what to look for, you probably wouldn’t notice what hasn’t been rebuilt,” she said.

Keith Greene, chairman of the Catoosa County Board of Commissioners, says most of the businesses rebuilt and most had been rebuilt within a year of the tornado.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” he said.

In addition to various businesses, the county’s planning and zoning building was heavily damaged and the Division of Family and Children Services building was a total loss. Damages to both buildings totaled $1 million, which was covered by insurance.

It took the county six months to remove and dispose of all the debris created by the tornado. The total cost for that was $6 million, which was split among the Federal Emergency Management Agency (75 percent), the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (10 percent) and the county (15 percent).

Surprisingly, despite the damage to so many retail businesses, restaurants and motels, the county’s economy, at least measured by sales tax revenue generated, didn’t take much of a hit. Greene says the sales tax revenue actually finished 2011 up 6.6 percent from 2010.

Ringgold resident Dan Quinn says he was heartened by how quickly the recovery went.

“For a small community like this, it was terrible. But it just seemed like the minute it was over, people were out there — city workers, county workers, volunteers, everybody — cleaning up and rebuilding. They got the job done,” he said.

Both Ringgold High School and Ringgold Middle School suffered significant damage from the tornado. Students couldn’t go back into them, and Catoosa County Schools officials had to quickly relocate 1,800 students. For the remainder of the school year, students were sent to the Heritage schools’ campus.

Ringgold High students were able to return to campus that fall, but because work was still going on at the eighth-grade campus at Ringgold Middle School, students there were sent to Ringgold High until after their winter break.

It would be another year before the Ringgold High football team was able to use the new stadium that had to be built.

For some Ringgold residents, the speed with which the schools were repaired was the most amazing part.

“Government tends to move slow on construction work, so I was afraid that would take a lot longer that it actually did,” said Gene Dawson.

But the area has done more than move on. Officials have taken steps to better prepare for any future tornado or other natural disaster.

Greene says the county has added two additional tornado sirens, one at Ringgold High School and one at Lakeview Middle School.

“These sirens have the capability to make verbal announcements along with the siren notifications if needed,” he said.

The county has also acquired the Everbridge Mass Notification, which allows officials to send emergency and other messages to residents who have signed up for it. The county has also added backup generator power to the primary emergency operations center, and two years ago commissioners hired a full-time emergency management director.

Some residents said they look back at that day and still have trouble believing that it really happened to their community.

“It all still seems like a bad dream,” said Estes.