Cold descends on storm zone as cleanup continues

Apr. 1—For days, Dee Gorey and other volunteers handed out tarps, bottled water, diapers and food to storm victims at Ohatchee's senior center.

On Thursday, people began showing up with a new request: blankets and sleeping bags. A cold spell was coming.

"Some people still don't have power," Gorey said. "Some of them are out there on their property in tents."

A week has passed since the March 25 storm outbreak that scattered tornadoes across Alabama. No place was harder hit than the rural Calhoun County communities of Ohatchee and Wellington, where five people died and 10 were injured, according to the count by the National Weather Service. The smell of broken pine is gone, and roads are passable, if lined with mounds of debris.

But much work remains, and time waits on no one. Forecasters issued a freeze warning for Thursday night, and volunteers say they're bracing for a few days of cold.

"We made a run, actually, this morning to get scarves, hats, gloves, coats, blankets and hot pads," said April LaFollette, director of Interfaith Ministries, who was coordinating volunteer efforts at Oak Bowery Baptist Church Thursday morning.

Alabama Power officials earlier this week said they've already restored electricity to every house that can get it; some houses are so damaged, they'll need repair before they can be connected to the grid. Even so, downed and dead power lines still droop across trees and lie across roads, and electrical crews and their trucks remain a common sight.

Tiffany DeBoer, spokeswoman for the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, said that despite reports on social media of people camping out on their property, there is another option. People can contact the EMA at 256-435-0540 or calhounema.org/help for assistance in finding a place to stay.

"No one needs to sleep in a tent or in their car," she said. "They can contact us."

LaFollette said there were likely about 200 volunteers at work in the storm zone Thursday, with more expected to show up over the weekend. That's just the count of those who reported to the volunteer center at Oak Bowery, though LaFollette said it's clear plenty of people have shown up informally to help friends and family members.

Local officials have urged those helpers to check in with the volunteer center. Local governments can get aid from the federal government if the tornado zone is declared a disaster area, but officials need to document a minimum amount of damage — typically in the neighborhood of $7 million statewide — before a disaster decree can kick in. LaFollette said volunteer work can count toward that damage total.

"We can count the man-hours," she said.

On Ragan Chapel Road, workers from the Tupelo, Miss.-based nonprofit Eight Days of Hope worked with members of Ragan Chapel Methodist Church to clear debris from the church site.

Piles of tree limbs and twisted sheets of metal siding lay in the church's cemetery, where tangled power lines still lay across graves. A bare foundation outlined the footprint of the modest church. Except for the a steeple lying on its side, there was little evidence there was ever a house of worship here.

Church member Chip Weathington, who lives on the other side of Alabama 77, said he heard the tornado go by. A church member rode out the storm in the church building and survived, he said. Church members plan to hold an outdoor Easter service at the site, he said.

"We're seeing a lot of volunteers out here, and that's what we need," he said.

David Smith, leader of an Eight Days of Hope work crew, said the group has about 40 people in the area, spending their nights at a church in Southside and working in the storm zone during the day. He'll be home by Easter: like other volunteers, he has to balance his desire to help and the amount of leave time he can get from work.

"We're just out here making messes for someone else to clean up," he joked. Cleanup takes place in stages: clearing trees, sorting debris into piles, collecting the piles, moving on to cleanup at another level of detail. Eight Days of Hope even has its chain saw teams broken down into groups, depending on the stage of cleanup they'll do. The final crew, known as the "red" team, won't arrive until after Easter, he said.

The holiday seemed to be on everyone's mind. At the donation center in Ohatchee, large stuffed bunnies slouched next to empty Easter baskets, waiting to be picked up by families in need.

At a computer console, volunteers worked with Patricia Pierce on an application for assistance. Pierce lives on Ingram Wells Road, named in the National Weather Service's final report as one of the areas hardest hit by the storm. Pierce said she didn't hear anything that sounded like a tornado when the storm hit. But it destroyed a workshop on her property, among other damage.

"We're just waiting on the insurance," she said.

At last count, 325 buildings were damaged in the storm. EMA officials say they are still completing their assessment of the damage.

Capitol & statewide reporter Tim Lockette: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star.

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