The storm tore apart the high school and caused nearly 50 basketball players to be trapped in the gym.

Coach Knight was holding basketball practice the night of November 5, 2002.

Abbeville High School Athletic Director Moses Knight said, "The wind blew the back wall out and everybody scattered. We had about 50 kids in the gym, we were in the middle of practice and we just took cover and before you could pop your finger up it was over and wasn't much left of the gym or anything else."

The gym and school were destroyed and students frightened after the storm passed.

Knight said, “First it was a lot of panic, but then total silence. We were just blessed because we only had two scratches out of the whole incident and we had a total mess in the gym."

It took just over three years, but finally the doors to a new and improved Abbeville High School were opened.

Henry County Schools Superintendent Dennis Coe said, “The structure of the school the codes currently are better than they were when the existing school was there. Much of our interior walls now are 80 percent concrete filled with steel reinforcement and metal roofing structure.”

Despite the upgrades, coach knight will never forget the storm or its aftermath.

Knight said, “Every time it clouds up it always stays in your mind because we were right in the middle of it.”