Tornado Entry: 22

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

This daily routine of disaster help is like a job now. The Samaritan’s Purse operation in Hueytown I delivered the tee shirts to, has closed and moved on to Joplin, Missouri.

Tuesday I again crewed out with David, Corey, Mitchell, and Scott. These are good hard working guys. We all work pretty well together. Todd tried to push me to being a team leader, but I told him David was short and he needed me! I did not want to be an overseer removing debris.

We were again out in Alberta City doing some straightening up of some previous jobs. Our assignment before lunch provided us with the needed comic relief for the day.

Man: Approaching Scott and Myself on the ground. Hey are you guys’ contractors? Who are you working for?

Jamie: We are volunteers for Samaritan’s Purse. We are just tarping houses today. I’m retired; I should be sitting on my front porch drinking coffee right now!

Man: There’s more to life than that. I’m trying to contract out crews to do roofing work for me. Do you want a job?

Jamie: You mean people get paid to do this? No thanks….

None of the boys wanted to crew on!!!

Man walked away…

Jamie: God Bless sir…..

This man drove off in a vehicle with Florida tags. There will be swarms of contractors from all over for the rebuilding stage. I would not want this man putting on my roof!

We returned to the lady’s house we did the major work to the other day. She was so thrilled to see us again. She is 99 years old. What a sweet lady. She reminded me so of my mother as she forced cookies and water on us. She wanted to feed us all with the food people have been bringing her. The boys blushed as she kept telling them how cute they were! This kind of interaction is all the reward I need…my bread cast upon the water is being returned to me ten fold.

Progress is being made. Ever so slowly the piles of trees and rubble are going down. The traffic patterns are returning to normal: volunteer and relief centers are closing or getting drastically smaller.

Monday will probably be my last day volunteering in this fashion. When I get home from my road trip the SP operations should be pretty well shut down here.

I want my old life back