Diploma carried away by Georgia tornado found 30 miles away

April 16 (UPI) -- A Georgia man whose diploma was among the objects carried away by a tornado was reunited with the document after it was found 30 miles from his home.

Kelvin Duke said his middle school diploma was packed away in a box inside one of the three barns in the back yard of his Upson County home when the tornado swept through the area Monday morning.

"I could feel the air coming up from the floor," Duke told WGCL-TV. "I was waiting for the home to be picked up from its foundation."

The house was left standing, albeit severely damaged, when the tornado left the area, but all three of the barns were destroyed, Duke said.

Duke said he was surprised to later receive a text from a friend saying his diploma had been found 30 miles away from his house. The document had come to a rest near I-75 in Monroe County.

"It wasn't crumpled, it was white as snow...it didn't even look like it had been in that tornado," Duke's daughter, Summer, told WGXA-TV.