The wail of tornado sirens bellowed along Pierce Avenue in Macon, Georgia. The thunderous snap of a tree falling cut through the stormy morning air, crashing into Jennifer’s home where, inside, she and her dog had just begun their day.
It was around 7 a.m. on Thursday, March 12, 2026 when Jennifer Conway and her dog, Luna, had begun their day with some morning coffee. Within moments, their calm, early morning routine was shattered.
“I’m pretty sure it was around 7:55 when we got the actual warning over the phone,” Conway said during her interview on April 10, 2026. “A tornado warning saying to take shelter.”
Conway took her dog and hurried to the kitchen. She said it was the safest part of her house, away from the tall pine trees that surrounded her house.
“We’ve experienced tornado warnings before,” she said, “but it just kind of felt a little scarier, like, my body was physically reacting and shaking to it.”
Thursday’s tornado brought “EF-1 winds peaking at 100mph for a path 3.39 miles long and 200 yards wide,” according to the Macon EMA website.
Conway kept watch of her phone, anxiously waiting for the tornado to pass.
“So it was like eight o’clock, and I looked and said, ‘Okay, we have 15 more minutes. 15 more minutes and just get through it,’” she said. “And then it hit just like that. It hit about eight, maybe 8:02 or something, but it was very fast, it was very loud.”
To Conway, the storm sound sounded totally different. It was not the familiar comparison of a passing train that she’d often hear.
“It was more of an explosion,” she said. “That’s the best description, it was an explosion. Everything happening at the same time.”
Trees snapped and uprooted from the ground. Car horns blared as drivers were caught in the chaos. From inside, Conway saw “sparks and flames, and just all the movement from outside.” The circus of noise echoed down Pierce Avenue until, suddenly, everything went silent.
Then came the damage.
“I had to go and assess everything. We were still under the tornado warning,” Conway said, “but we had a branch stabbing into the ceiling of the living room.”
Upon further inspection, Conway discovered a tree that had punctured its way into her son’s room.
“It affected the whole roof, basically,” She said. “It was a big impact in a small time, and it was a bit of a shock. We had to kind of sit and process and go, ‘what do we need to do?’”
Immediately, Conway had begun coordinating emergency repairs. She called a tree removal service, a roofing company, and contractors to tarp the house. But the damage was severe, with asbestos disturbed and infecting the home.
A Georgia Power electrician was needed to address the hazard because of the home’s electrical meter, which was ripped from the exterior wall.
Now displaced, Conway is waiting on insurance approvals before repairs can begin, which is a process she says has been slow to move forward.
“There was a delay in any kind of progress that was made,” she said, “and they’re just now starting to do the things they’re supposed to do. Very little has been done so far.”
Conway has been told that the recovery process could take anywhere from six months to a year. For now, her home on Pierce Avenue remains damaged.
“It was a scary experience,” Conway said.
