You only have to get an up close look at twisted metal and pine trees snapped in half to understand that all the photos or video in the world won’t do justice to the damage a tornado can do.

You have to see it for yourself. And then you wonder how in the world it was that more people weren’t killed.

You won’t be alone in wondering that. Time and time again I heard folks say Bryan County was lucky the April 5 tornado that blasted parts of North Bryan wasn’t worse than it was, and it was as bad as anything I’ve ever seen, hurricanes included.

That’s not showing a lack of empathy for the family of Ellabell’s Belinda Thompson, 66, who died in the tornado. Nor is it minimizing the awful damage and destruction wrought on businesses and homes and lives on Homestead Drive and in Park Place, and in Pembroke, and in places in between.

It’s just the truth. Bad as the damage was, and it was catastrophic in some places, the tornado’s impact could’ve been a lot, lot, lot worse.

The workday evening timing of the storm that spawned the tornado meant a lot of folks hadn’t gotten home from work yet. Because it was spring break, others were out of town on vacations.

Because the tornado touched down, took flight and then touched down again, “hopping” its way from Pembroke to Black Creek, it skipped some areas. And because it was a tornado, it picked its way at random, just missing a day care in one instance.

In its aftermath, because of the kindness and generosity of regular people from Bryan County and beyond, neighbors and strangers alike, there was no shortage of helping hands to help folks start picking up the pieces.

Because of the courage and steadfastness of first responders and law enforcement, lives were saved. Because of the response from utility companies, who tend to be under-appreciated until the lights go out, lives were saved.

Because of the professionalism of folks who make it their job to take care of people at their most vulnerable, lives ripped to shreds by the tornado were begun to be made a little more whole again.

I’d name names, but I’m afraid I’d leave somebody out. They know, however, who they are and how much they’ve helped their fellow men and women and children.

And they probably just shrug it off, because that’s what they get paid for. Or volunteer for. Helping others is what they do, and I admire them immensely for it.

That’s the silver lining. It could’ve been so much worse. You just have to see up close the damage the tornado did do to marvel at what it didn’t do.

Savannah’s myriad TV news stations, which to their credit have been all over the tornado, reported Wednesday people are stealing things in areas hit hardest by the storms – the dregs of humanity will kick you when you’re down, you know – but the dregs are outnumbered 10-1 by good people.

And they always will be.

Because if nothing else, the calamity of wind and storm that tore through a chunk of North Bryan brought out the best in people.

That’s no small thing in this fractured, silly, cacophonous time we live in, a time in which it seems everybody blames somebody else for something and about the only thing we can all agree on is to disagree.

The tornado’s aftermath showed that, no matter its faults – and Bryan County has them, just like anywhere else – this is a

good place to be.

Wait, scratch that last sentence. It’s a great place.

Whitten is editor of the News.