We got a much later start today, sleeping in (relatively speaking) and eating a good breakfast. This time we added Jeff and his Bobcat. Unfortunately we had a hard time finding a work site, and spent most of the morning driving from place to place, waiting to hear from people, and trying to get around blocked roads.
The people we encountered this morning offset my frustration, reminding me why we are here in the first place. When we got gas we found a guy who had just gone into a grand mal seizure. Several members of our group have medical training (we are from Loma Linda after all); Jose and Andy sprang into action and helped the guy until the ambulance arrived.
We also helped Pat, a sprightly elderly woman, clean up her yard. She was extraordinarily positive, already planning what she was going to do with the space and how she would repurpose some of the damaged things. It’s inspiring to see people with such great attitudes after something like this.
Her neighbor, an Air Force veteran, was sitting by his house fuming about his insurance company. Jose started talking to him and the rest of our group gathered around. He told us some stories and by the time we left, he was telling jokes and seemed like he was in a much better mood. Seizing the opportunity to be there for people is what a trip like this is all about.
Around lunchtime we helped Peggy load her things into a U-Haul and hooked her car up to a trailer that had seen better days. The ramps kept scraping against the bumper when Jeff tried to drive the car onto them, so Joe supplemented them with some boards. After a few tense moments we had the car on the trailer and managed to strap it down despite the dilapidated rachets. She called us tonight to let us know she’d made it to her destination safely.
Our final work site was exclusively physical labor, clearing fallen trees, lumber, and metal from a yard. We had two Bobcats going and a number of chainsaws, and midway through a massive claw truck showed up to help clear the piles we’d made. I didn’t get too many pictures today but I think many of the others did, so check the Re:Live Facebook site as well.
While tearing down broken attic stairs Andy noticed a doorway with the heights of the kids marked onto it. This much destruction makes it easy to forget that these are homes, and seeing something like that is a sudden reminder. We also saw the little crawlspace where six people had hidden when the tornado passed over.
Apparently the tornado was about a mile in diameter, making it large enough that some are considering making an F6 category just for it (currently F5 is the maximum). I have a hard time imagining a tornado that big —all the pictures I’ve seen of tornados aren’t anywhere near a mile across.
By the time we stopped work on this house we were all filthy, and I managed to pick up some sunburn despite multiple applications of sunscreen. Showering felt great; the water coming off my body was filthy.
An older couple at the church we’ve been staying at cooked us all a delicious dinner, complete with homemade desserts, a perfect end to the day.
