Mormon Helping Hands

  

Last weekend I went along with about 24 others from our ward to Alabama to help with the tornado clean up.  I left here about 6:00pm and got there about midnight.  We camped at the branch building in Jasper which is north of Birmingham. We got up and worked all day Saturday.  The weather was good low 70's and over cast.  My group, which dad was a part of, went to Cordova. This was a small humble little town. In a little valley. It was amazing to see the destruction that was still there. The main street leading to downtown was closed because all the building downtown was damaged.  

            The first work address we could not even find.  The next one we met a nice elderly gentleman who had a huge tree in his driveway.  Unfortunately it was too big for us to pick up so we could not help him. But we did listen to his story.  We heard a lot of stories that day.  He showed us the "storm shelter" he and his wife stayed in.  Evidently there were two tornadoes that came through that day, almost 12 hours apart.  He said the first tornado flipped his truck on his tomato plants. He said that he was wondering how he would get it out of his garden but the second tornado flipped it back into the drive way.
            Next we went to an elderly lady's home.  She had a number of trees down and an out building that had some damage. We got the tarp on the out building and cut up the trees and stacked it by the road.  The residents were told that if they got the tree limbs and trash on the side of the street then the county would pick it up.  Luckily we had Brother Frost in our work crew and he brought his truck.  We used it as a wheel barrow to haul the limbs away.  If we did not have it I think we could still be carrying tree limbs to the road.  After a few hours it got harder and harder to lift the wood. About 1:00 we went to a local church that was feeding the volunteers.
            The last address we went to was on the side of the hill.  The woman who owned it and a trailer on the street below was there.  Both of these homes were in shambles.  The trailer had a humongous tree that crashed through it.  The lady that was renting it told us she was in the kitchen when the tree came down.  Looking at the trailer it is amazing she survived.  Another crew came and started cutting.  They were actually scary to watch and we all thought it was amazing they did not hurt themselves.  At one point one chainsawer actually dropped his chainsaw when the large limb he was cutting fell down. Luckily he did not cut himself.
            The house we were cleaning had down trees and trash and furniture everywhere. It also had a trailer’s roof plaster on the electric pole.  We were not sure that all the trash was the tornado’s fault. The trees were not as large as the earlier place we were at but they all twisted in vines and the hill was more vertical.  We worked hard to get it cleaned up the lady was also determined that we tarp the roof.  It was missing some tin and had some holes over the kitchen.
            We were beat by the time we were finally finished. We got back to Jasper and were able to take a shower at a local swimming center.  I and dad decided to just crash in the tent.  Sunday morning we packed up and had a sacrament meeting.  We were all set to do some work but it turned out that there were no jobs left.  So we were able to leave a little early.  The only thing I would do different would be bring a camera.  Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to share.  If I get any from any of the brethren that went I will post them.