Letter from North Alabama
Paul Elliott, a friend of mine, has been helping victims of the tornadoes in Alabama since April 29. Today he sent this letter to some of his friends. It is so interesting that I asked him if I could share it.
Dear Friends,
I have been blessed by your prayers and messages of encouragement. Here is a rough chronology of the last 2 weeks.
April 27, Wednesday -- Many tornadoes (eF3 to eF5) struck northeast AL (along with several other states) causing massive damage and the loss of over 250 people in AL alone.
April 29, Friday -- The Louisiana Baptist Convention's Disaster Relief teams were activated. I belong to the Rolling Hills Ministries team and am trained as an "Assessor." The assessors go out and assess the damaged homes looking for the things our teams can help. I was tasked to look for downed trees that needed removal from houses, driveways, etc., and roofs that needed tarp patching to prevent further rain damage to the contents.
We also hand out water, ice, MREs (meals ready to eat)--self-heating balanced diets that have a very long shelf-life, gasoline for electricity generators and tarps for homeowners to apply themselves, though our crews will apply them with strips of wood tacking them down. These temporary repairs will last about 3 months until proper roof repair can be done.
April 30, Saturday -- I drove from Shiner, TX, to Geraldine, AL, where the 1st Baptist Church has housed and fed us. For the last 15 miles there was no electricity. There was no light anywhere. It was as dark as the inside of a cat!
I am so thankful for my new Garmin GPS. If I hadn't had it, I don't think I would have found my way.
May 1, Sunday -- I was matched with a partner and we were given areas of the devastation to canvass by going up and down every street. We would stop at the houses where it seemed our teams could help and get the homeowners' permission to remove trees, patch roofs, etc., and move on to the next home or street. At the end of the day, we would turn in our site assessments to be handed out to the work teams for the next day.
My partner and I were assigned to some of the most ravaged areas, not because there was much of anything we could do for them, but to determine the fringes of the damage where we could help the homeowners.
In an area in the little town of Sylvania, AL, a tornado devastated a zone about a mile wide and about 3-4 miles long. It flattened every house leaving only the concrete slab. Cars and trucks were carried hundreds of yards. The occasional tree trunk left standing had had its limbs stripped off and its bark stripped off like it had been sand blasted by flying debris. The trunks stood stark white like sentinels reminding us all of the terrible force of the winds. Even the grass was plucked out of the ground! There was nothing green left.
Very sadly a number of people lost their lives on this hill that afternoon.
It was sad, indeed, to see families walking through the rubble in the fields searching for their important personal effects. It was particularly saddening to see children's toys sprinkled in the piles of debris.
More later.
In His Service,
Paul
Dear Friends,
I have been blessed by your prayers and messages of encouragement. Here is a rough chronology of the last 2 weeks.
April 27, Wednesday -- Many tornadoes (eF3 to eF5) struck northeast AL (along with several other states) causing massive damage and the loss of over 250 people in AL alone.
April 29, Friday -- The Louisiana Baptist Convention's Disaster Relief teams were activated. I belong to the Rolling Hills Ministries team and am trained as an "Assessor." The assessors go out and assess the damaged homes looking for the things our teams can help. I was tasked to look for downed trees that needed removal from houses, driveways, etc., and roofs that needed tarp patching to prevent further rain damage to the contents.
We also hand out water, ice, MREs (meals ready to eat)--self-heating balanced diets that have a very long shelf-life, gasoline for electricity generators and tarps for homeowners to apply themselves, though our crews will apply them with strips of wood tacking them down. These temporary repairs will last about 3 months until proper roof repair can be done.
April 30, Saturday -- I drove from Shiner, TX, to Geraldine, AL, where the 1st Baptist Church has housed and fed us. For the last 15 miles there was no electricity. There was no light anywhere. It was as dark as the inside of a cat!
I am so thankful for my new Garmin GPS. If I hadn't had it, I don't think I would have found my way.
May 1, Sunday -- I was matched with a partner and we were given areas of the devastation to canvass by going up and down every street. We would stop at the houses where it seemed our teams could help and get the homeowners' permission to remove trees, patch roofs, etc., and move on to the next home or street. At the end of the day, we would turn in our site assessments to be handed out to the work teams for the next day.
My partner and I were assigned to some of the most ravaged areas, not because there was much of anything we could do for them, but to determine the fringes of the damage where we could help the homeowners.
In an area in the little town of Sylvania, AL, a tornado devastated a zone about a mile wide and about 3-4 miles long. It flattened every house leaving only the concrete slab. Cars and trucks were carried hundreds of yards. The occasional tree trunk left standing had had its limbs stripped off and its bark stripped off like it had been sand blasted by flying debris. The trunks stood stark white like sentinels reminding us all of the terrible force of the winds. Even the grass was plucked out of the ground! There was nothing green left.
Very sadly a number of people lost their lives on this hill that afternoon.
It was sad, indeed, to see families walking through the rubble in the fields searching for their important personal effects. It was particularly saddening to see children's toys sprinkled in the piles of debris.
More later.
In His Service,
Paul
Labels: AL, Geraldine, Paul Elliott, Rolling Hills Ministry, tornadoes
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11:26 PM
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