Remembering Tuscaloosa Tornado 2 Years Later

A few days before we left Tuscaloosa, we took drive around the area near Holt which was close to our work site.  We were near the Alberta area building houses.

We took some photos of the area.

This is where Alberta Elementary School once stood.

And over in the Holt area more effects of the storm:

We saw only one storm shelter:

And a house with a pool and garage - only the garage left

The devastation and destruction of these tornadoes is hard to comprehend.  We have never been through one or experienced it.  Two years later, things are a lot better, but their lives have changed and they have endured a lot.

When we see the recent tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma our hearts go out to them also.  But for now I think about what one homeowner said to us while we were in Tuscaloosa, "Thanks for remembering us".

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...

We Are Not the Only Ones

There are all kinds of volunteers at this site!  We have a whole lot of folks from different parts of the country who are volunteering and doing Disaster Recovery work in Tuscaloosa.  We are part of the HFH RV Care-A-Vanners group.  And there is a steady stream of other volunteers who are also on site.

The Mennonites are here with about 5 men.  They have their own trailer and equipment and 'sign up for  a 6 or 12 month stint.

And a group of college men and women who are here from Georgia.  This group we found particularly interesting.  It all started with Mercedes.

Mercedes (in sun glasses -below) recently graduated from the University of Georgia.  Two years ago after the tornado hit Tuscaloosa she was drawn to get involved.  She drove out here by herself and found a group of people that were taking in volunteers and getting ready for recovery work.  She followed up with a second trip with about 20 other volunteers.  They were housed in the local Nazarene church.  Since then she has made it back to Tuscaloosa each year after school lets out and brings friends with her.

Here is a shot of the group:

This is a great group: Janine, Kelly, Mercedes (first row); Howell, Kari, Justin (second row); Monica, Alex (back row).  This group knows how to work and have fun doing it!  

And they are polite!  I haven't heard as many "Yes Sir", "Yes Ma'am"'s in years.  

One day we had a local group from the Capstone Hotel in town.  They included folks from HR and the Event Planning office.

In addition to working on site all day, they had lunch: large chicken wrap, Gatorade, pear and two chocolate chip cookies.

Down the street the United Methodist Church (UMC) Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is building a house.

There have been thousands and thousands of folks who have been here to help with the recovery.  With  the destruction of over 5,000 homes, there will be a lot of work to do for some time.

That is all for now -- thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Mostly Painting for Now in Tuscaloosa

We have been on the job site in Tuscaloosa Habitat for Humanity and are off to a great start!  We love it when the affiliate knows how to farm out the work and keep everyone busy and involved.  The first couple of days, we have been painting the house on Juanita Street.

We started off with introductions in the team meeting/form up at the beginning of the work day.

Brannon is the site construction manager and he gets a lot of help from Joe who is our house leader.  Peter our campground host and HFH staff member keeps us busy too.

The scaffolding was up all around the exterior of the house which made it very nice.  No extended ladder work reaching high places which is fine with me.  We always learn and see new things at different places.  Here we saw scaffolding rails for the first time.

Scaffolding is heavy, takes a lot of time to set up and take down - but once it is in place it is great.  And safe.  HFH is making a concerted effort to step up its safety emphasis and the rails on the scaffolding are a good example.

Some worked on getting the trim up and caulked and then we all got into painting it.

It carried over into Tuesday and we gave the whole exterior two coats.

And we accomplished our goal of finishing the house painting so we could get the scaffolding down.

It has been a good first two days here and we are looking forward to the rest of the week.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Feel free to drop a note/add a comment - we always love those!
Until next time...