Tornado Entry: 11

At the boathouse Sunday, everyone was exchanging their stories. Margaret related as to how she was living in Nuremburg, Germany in 1947 and the devastation left in Tuscaloosa paralled the bombed out remains she witnessed.

There seems to be an order now as the signing up for volunteers has become routine. I had two job assignments and some 10 people. Seven of the ten were only on for four hours. I split the jobs and put Josh in charge of the one crew. Josh seemed really capable and was flying out later in the afternoon.

Myself and four other guys headed out to our job on East 13^th St. Two of the guys were not able to do any roofing, so I put them to just doing some general cleaning up. Kyle and Phillip were two young boys from Missouri who were right on it.

Kyle left, Phillip right

Margaret’s words were all I could think of as I viewed the destruction from the rafters of this house. There was no roof left. This house was a first structure to remain standing in the hard hit area of 15^th St and McFarland. It is a shotgun style house that did not move from the foundation, so it should be able to be rebuilt. To the east was a clear view of the old Big Lots, and Hobby Lobby. The Krispy Crème and Blue Moon Bar-b-que are pretty much gone without a trace.

The radio was blaring as we arrived. Climbing the ladder to assess the job I saw the old cloth wiring and immediately thought about the disaster of nailing through a live wire. Then I thought “You idiot there is no power to this house!!” There were good tunes playing on the boombox which brought back my "party days". (The house owner later told us how well Duracell batteries work in that radio!)

Kyle and Phillip were great in that I was able to leave them on their own and they knew what to do. I had to run back to the church to get more supplies. Stopped home on the way and picked up my old ice chest. The ice machine at the church is getting a workout! My boys will have cold water to drink now!

We were able to get the roof covered as best we could. The homeowner was thrilled with the job. We were starved. I told my boys I knew the best place for lunch. They piled in the back and we headed to the Moose Lodge on 25^th Ave. I drove slow as they were in the back of the truck. This is a common sight now in town: pick up trucks with all kinds of tools and people in the back!

Success.. pretty well finished.

The madness and shock is wearing off and as the streets and roads get cleared things are returning to a form of normal. The outside food set up was gone at the Moose and I was afraid they had stopped serving volunteers. No, they had moved the operation indoors. They remembered me from Friday when I wore my Utilikilt. I explained how I was asked by the powers to be to not wear it as a team leader. I was kind of annoyed, but there is too much to be done to argue a small point. We pigged out on fried shrimp and fries. I washed it down with lots of iced tea.

We turned in our job paperwork and went out on another tarping. This was located across the street from the last minute tarping I did last Monday. A 20ft storage shed had a tree fall right in the middle, making a twisted mess. There was inventory of a business that needed to be protected in the short term. This was kind of dangerous and it was shifting a bit. I was taking a piece of tarp over and my footing shifted. Instinctively I reached to the side which was a section of metal roof. Yup I got a good cut… boy did it bleed! A little bit of duct tape sealed it up fine!

We returned to the church to dump off the supplies and paperwork. Kyle and Phillip were wondering where to get breakfast. I told them “My House!!” They can’t believe I get up at 4:00 a.m. Breakfast is the easiest meal to cook.

Got home and crashed: Once I got moving again I washed out my cut. It was clean and since it bled really well it should be O.K. It is the puncture wounds that hold the germs in. Mom taught me that! A long hot shower did wonders to revive me.

I had a steak in the ice box from the other day to cook up. Since I had so much food for lunch I was only able to eat half of it.

It was a warm night. I settled in on the porch swing with a glass of box wine. I was clean and all I had on was my Utilikilt. As I type this out all I can think of is the famous quote by Mae West, “Come on in, all I have on is the radio.” It did not take Stumpy long to find me. He hopped right up on my lap for loves. I left a brick in the door so Daggy could join us at her leisure. She finally came down from the upstairs, making a vocal entrance onto the porch. Poor Daggy was annoyed her lap spot was claimed. She was content to roll on the mat rug instead.

On the surface just sitting on the swing interacting with my cats does not seem like much, but the contentment and bliss from this means the world to me.