Tornado Entry: 13

“You can’t be rigid, you can’t be flexible, you have to be fluid.” Has become my motto. I’ve been a team leader pretty much since volunteering. Basically this means I’m responsible for the paperwork and coordinating everyone assigned to me.

From how I’m understanding how things work there are two basic crews: chainsaw, and tarping crews. I know so little of chainsaws I let those guys make the calls. The one thing I really push is they wear chaps for safety. This is like having to wear safety glasses in the plant. When tarping I TRY to make the nailers wear safety glasses. Those nails can “zing” so fast. I’ve had too many bounce off my glasses to question the pain of wearing them.

Wednesday I was supposed to crew out with David and help his tarping crew. I got pulled at the last minute and was given a chainsaw group to oversee. This was a great group of guys who all worked together. I could tell these guys knew their stuff.

We went to our first of three jobs in Alberta City. These addresses here are so random, this job was challenge to find. A tree was on a little shotgun house. It looked like the root ball was weak on one side and the wind stress pushed the tree over. This area was not heavily damaged.

It was like watching a surgeon dissect a cadaver as these boys plotted out the cuts to take down this tree. The branches came off we hauled them to the curb.

I inspected and cleared off the roof. There were old leaves that had been up there for years. I was pulling out compost from some areas. I swept off the roof, and drove down some protruding nails.

We are to leave our work areas in good shape. This property had not been kept up. The grass had not been mowed forever. The East side of the house had not been cleaned or raked in months perhaps years. You could not tell where I had swept off the leaves from the roof.

Here is my crew in front of the debris we cleared away.

We did the best clean up we could and broke for lunch. I always try to get my crews to the Moose Lodge. They put on a great lunch for the volunteers. This service is going to end this week, so I’m going to enjoy it while I can! They love to hear me say, “I want to treat my crews right, so I bring them here!”

Today (Wednesday) lunch was chicken, lima beans, okra&tomatoes, sweet potatoes salad and carrot cake for desert. I enjoy watching my “boys” chow down.

I get new crews every day, but we all bond and become a pretty close knit group at the close of our jobs. I feel quite paternal and protective towards them. I now wonder if my old Supervisors ever felt that way of me. There were a few I know disliked me to no end, but others I would do extra because they were decent. It is those decent foreman I try to emulate with my crews.

Before we even leave the church to go out I tell my crews we are all in this together, don’t be afraid to tell me if anything can be done better. The chainsaw boys work in Nuclear Medicine! I showed Jason my work orders so he could pick out the next job. It was a tree on a house off Crescent Ridge Road. This was a very hard hit area. The GPS was invaluable finding this place as street signs are missing. This is some the worst damage I have witnessed up close.

This job was down in a little valley. A huge tree was crashed through the house. There was no safe way our crew could take this out. I told the boys it was their call and they said, “No way” in unison. This house is a total loss.

The house is in this valley:

The tree to be removed.

What is left of the kitchen:

Matrix rescue code. I was unsuccessful in finding information on how to read this code.

Our last job was on University Blvd East. This is a strange address because you can’t access the houses from the street. Homes along this area are up a hill and have an access from the back along a narrow street. You can barely get down this street from the debris lining it. Finally we get to this elusive address.

This is the kind of a job that really annoys me. A tree was leaning towards the house about one foot away from live electric service. There is no way to take it down without a pulley and bucket. The branches have already been taken out, there was no danger to the house from this.

There were fallen trees that had been cut up some. Our basic job is to secure the property from any further damage. It seems like now people are wanting to use us as a free service to clear their yards. I contacted the homeowner as is requested. She wanted the trees in the back cut and hauled down the hill to the road because she claimed the city would not go on her property to remove the limbs. The hardwood she wanted us to cut up and stack for her fireplace. She was annoyed about the damage to her roof. There was a small area on the corner of the carport that had been tarped that was a bit loose. Then as I talked to her she directed me to the other damage over her back door. Finding the damage my blood began to boil, but I held it in and told her it would be repaired. There was a two foot area where the shingle overhang was missing exposing the wooden soffit board. After tarping entire roofs that little bit did not even register in my mind as damage. I cut a little section of tarp and covered it to show we did something.

We had no more jobs and returned to the church. I had the chainsaw guys come in with me to explain the extent of the damage to the one house, and the absurdity of the last house call. They know more about that kind of work than I ever will.

Apparently the removal of the tree debris is becoming a problem with what is expected from the homeowners and what we are obligated and can accomplish as volunteers.

It was kind of an early quit. I had time to get to the barbershop. It was an easy cut…buzz my head with a 1 ½ blade. It felt so good as I could feel the cool air on my head as the locks fell off.

I can see progress being made. Some of the debris piles on University Blvd are down. Traffic is going again in all the lanes. There is not so much of a military presence now. Slowly things are returning to a form of what will be the “new normalcy” for a while