#2390729 - 05/11/11 07:11 PM
Alabama Tornado aid and pics of how bad it is....
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Jer
8 Point
Registered: 11/25/07
Posts: 2045
Loc: Old Hickory, TN
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My friend at work decided that he wanted to help in Alabama. So he and his wife rented a U-Haul with the help of donations and raising about $1000 bucks they packed that U-Haul to the top and below is a link to the pictures he took and his story. Say a prayer for the people in Alabama. They still need a lot of help!
Alabama trip pictures
I could write for days about our trip this weekend but I’ll try to keep it short. First of all thanks to everyone we just about loaded the truck to the brim! So much so we had to go to 3 different places to finally find a place with enough room to take it all. We finished loading everything up around 1:00 AM Saturday morning and I must say from helping unload other peoples trucks that we had the best sorted, most well organized truck I saw . Our first location was a Red Cross center/shelter and they didn’t have enough room for us, so they sent us to a place called “Temporary Emergency Services”. This is an organization that works year round to help those in need, but when we got to their “regular” location they didn’t have enough room either so after apologizing over and over and thanking us they sent us to another location where they had leased an old grocery store for a year as a warehouse to hold all the donations for the tornado victims. So when we arrived at this location they told us how to get in line and then said “if you want the line to move faster then you are welcome to go inside and help”, so that’s what we did. Holly stayed with the truck and my niece, her friend, and I went inside and signed up to volunteer. It was quite an incredible operation a lady named Jenni was pretty much running the show and she told us to follow her so she took off through the maze of goods asking people who needed help, and someone raised their hand and needed help making care packages I took a step in that direction and Jenni quickly grabbed my arm and said “oh no you are coming with me”, so one of the girls took that spot. She then found another location for my niece. Then she drug me to the back screaming “who needs muscle?” (obviously the P90X is paying off, booya!). So I ended up loading and unloading trucks for the rest of the day in a bucket brigade fashion. We were told that the churches, fire departments, and other organizations place orders of what they need, they load the order up on palettes and load them up on the trucks. It was truly amazing to see the organized chaos going on as people where going in every which way, but someone was always pointing them in the right direction. I was there for 5 minutes and people were pulling up and asking me what they needed to do and I was directing them on where to go, I walk through the warehouse and see my niece directing people “children’s toys are under the deli sign”, “first aid is over by the bakery”, etc. A truck was being loaded and were a couple people short so I jumped in line and helped and another fellow came up after that to help as well, he asked me where the truck was going, I told him I had no idea I just saw an open spot and jumped in, he laughed. Everyone was so nice and helpful in what could have easily been a very stressful situation, the teamwork was just incredible. So after a few hours it was finally time to unload our truck and people were unloading stuff and some not sure what to do so there was a moment when everyone was just kind of standing there holding stuff and then suddenly I hear Holly’s voice behind me barking out orders “diapers go on this palette”, “water and drinks on this one”, “food over here”, etc, and everyone just started moving and doing it, I was just cracking up, but it was just another case of something needing to be done and someone stepping up and doing it, saw it over and over again throughout the day, as the sign over the front door said “Those who say something can’t be done should not interrupt those who are doing it”, pretty awesome.
As for the destruction, it was unbelievable. One second you are driving through a normal city and then suddenly it’s something totally indescribable. It’s like someone had a picture of Tuscaloosa from Google Earth and then took an eraser and just made a line right down through the middle of the city. It’s so unreal to see some what something like that does, and so baffling at times. You would see a brick building totally destroyed but a bookshelf standing with books still on the it. As Holly’s friend Elizabeth said “it’s amazing how destructive yet graceful it was”. Words don’t do it justice but I brought in some of the pictures from the trip and you can find them at the path below, let me know if you have any problems.
Thanks again everyone, you made a big difference in someone’s life!
_________________________
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants. - TJ
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#2390742 - 05/11/11 07:25 PM
Re: Alabama Tornado Help!
[Re: Jer]
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utfan1
10 Point
Registered: 12/31/06
Posts: 3597
Loc: cleveland,tn
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thats awesome!
dadgum the devestation is worse than any words can describe.
during the whole mess i have yet to talk with anyone that was mad or bitter. as a matter of fact i talked with a woman yesterday that had a broke back and had lost her mom,dad and home. she was up beat and greatful to be alive and had not lost her faith in CHRIST.
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#2390754 - 05/11/11 07:49 PM
Alabama Tornado Help!
[Re: utfan1]
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Jer
8 Point
Registered: 11/25/07
Posts: 2045
Loc: Old Hickory, TN
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thats awesome!
dadgum the devestation is worse than any words can describe.
during the whole mess i have yet to talk with anyone that was mad or bitter. as a matter of fact i talked with a woman yesterday that had a broke back and had lost her mom,dad and home. she was up beat and greatful to be alive and had not lost her faith in CHRIST.
Just seems like people are working together to get back on their feet...Sad that it has fallen of the media's radar...it is going to be so long before they get back to normal.
_________________________
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants. - TJ
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#2390797 - 05/11/11 08:50 PM
Re: Alabama Tornado Help!
[Re: Jer]
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spitndrum
Team TLBB Woodpile Boys
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/09/06
Posts: 50718
Loc: Cumberland Plateau
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Awesome Job
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#2390874 - 05/11/11 10:04 PM
Re: Alabama Tornado Help!
[Re: spitndrum]
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Cleburne
4 Point
Registered: 04/22/10
Posts: 275
Loc: Hamilton, Alabama
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I live 20 miles South of Hackleburg, pictures will never be able to tell the story about what happened there. The Saturday after the storm hit my VFD went up there to help to clean up, there was folks from all over the SouthEast helping. The main man from FEMA was there and he said more was done in one week than what New Orleans done in a month.
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#2390901 - 05/11/11 10:36 PM
Re: Alabama Tornado aid and pics of how bad it is....
[Re: Jer]
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Rob R.
10 Point
Registered: 04/25/11
Posts: 3647
Loc: Collierville TN.
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Great story and pics! Thanks for sharing!!
_________________________
The four most wonderful words in the English language.....Take me hunting daddy!
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#2390917 - 05/11/11 10:44 PM
Re: Alabama Tornado Help!
[Re: Cleburne]
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Spike
TnDeer Old Timer
10 Point
Registered: 05/31/99
Posts: 2699
Loc: Oakland, TN. USA
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I have a friend of mine that lives there. He lost everything. He told me that a group of guys came the other day to help him move some things and drive him to the places he needed to go. Thay were wearing UT shirts and were from someplace around Knoxville.Thay told him that thay had come down to help their SEC Family. He said he could not believe the generosity and humanity he has seen after this event. Nothing left of his biz but a slab of concrete and his home is a pile of rubble his trucks are all a total loss and one has not even been found yet. Through all of this his SEC arch enemy a UT fan was there to give a Bama fan a hand up.
I guess you UT guys aint so bad after all.
_________________________
If the government wants my guns, I will give them the bullets first.
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#2391170 - 05/12/11 10:48 AM
Re: Alabama Tornado Help!
[Re: Spike]
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Jer
8 Point
Registered: 11/25/07
Posts: 2045
Loc: Old Hickory, TN
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I have a friend of mine that lives there. He lost everything. He told me that a group of guys came the other day to help him move some things and drive him to the places he needed to go. Thay were wearing UT shirts and were from someplace around Knoxville.Thay told him that thay had come down to help their SEC Family. He said he could not believe the generosity and humanity he has seen after this event. Nothing left of his biz but a slab of concrete and his home is a pile of rubble his trucks are all a total loss and one has not even been found yet. Through all of this his SEC arch enemy a UT fan was there to give a Bama fan a hand up.
I guess you UT guys aint so bad after all.
I guess tragedy even transcends SEC football.... 
_________________________
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants. - TJ
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#2391371 - 05/12/11 02:00 PM
Re: Alabama Tornado Help!
[Re: Jer]
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Wrangler95
16 Point
Registered: 11/28/02
Posts: 11493
Loc: Celina,Tn
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Very nice!!I'm sure they appreciated your familys help!!
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Psalms 37:16 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked
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