HURRICANE MICHAEL: Tiny Jackson County town abuzz with volunteer help

Oct. 21--ALFORD -- This tiny Jackson County town was awash, on Saturday, in yellow.

Some portion of that was due to the presence of a particularly annoying species of wasp that had been rousted from their pine tree homes by Hurricane Michael.

But much more visible, and doing more good than any harm the yellow jackets could muster, were the yellow-shirted crews of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Mormons, it seemed, were everywhere, and equipped with the heavy machinery required to help residents of the beleaguered town of 400 remove the hundreds of trees indiscriminately brought down by Michael.

"We just met here and spread out to find people who needed help," said Jamie Todd, who had been summoned by the church from his home in Orlando. He said he was just one of an estimated 1,000 "spread out all over" in Florida, many residing in tents at a location in Marianna.

Tony Leclerc stood out back of his Virginia Street home and marveled as a troupe of a dozen or so Mormon workers picked up limbs and cut up and moved the 10 trees, two of them massive pecan trees, that had fallen in his yard.

"It would have taken us months to get this done," he said.

In the front of the house, another volunteer secured a tarp over areas of the disabled Leclerc's roof.

"I can't describe how bad it was. In 43 years of living in this area I have never seen anything like that," Leclerc said of riding out Hurricane Michael. "We were praying that no trees would fall on the house, and two trees fell on the house."

For several days after the storm passed, Leclerc said, Alford residents had been frustrated as they watched power company trucks and rescue workers lumber past on U.S. Highway 281 on their way to Panama City and other, more populated areas.

It was on Virginia Street, just down from the Leclerc home, that the body of a man known locally as "Old School" had been found three days after the storm struck, pinned beneath a fallen tree.

Help may have been slow arriving in Alford, but on Saturday the little town was bustling with relief workers.

While the yellow-shirted volunteers labored at Leclerc's home, on the other side of Virginia Street Camellia Hayes stood on the small deck in front of her single-wide trailer and watched as a crew from MDR Construction in Mississippi worked through the morning to restore power to her neighborhood.

"I stayed right here, and didn't feel my trailer move but two or three times, just a quiver," Hayes said as she recalled the storm that devastated her town and so many others on Oct. 10. "I really didn't get scared until I looked out and saw both my trees down, and one of them on my car."

Hayes said the rumor in the neighborhood was that power was being restored on Virginia Street sooner than in other places, because a little girl who'd had a liver transplant lived just down the road. That little girl, it turned out, was Leclerc's stepdaughter.

Hayes said she'd never really gotten to know her neighbors until a couple of years ago when they'd shown up to offer help after she'd suffered a medical emergency. In the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, she said, her neighbors had helped keep her fed and supplied with necessities like ice.

"People have been just fantastic," she said.

Across the highway Clear Restoration out of Louisiana was busy removing debris from the storm-damaged Alford town hall.

For those taking advantage of the relief center, toilet paper was a hot commodity, and some people were asking the relief workers for tarps. Roger Stokes, an Alford resident, was gathering pet supplies for his little dog.

"We took some licks," he said, shaking his head. "We're trying to do the best we can do."

Marie Brooks, who had driven down to Alford from Cottondale, related a story of riding out the storm in a home with 12 other people and "a bible in every room."

"Two days before the storm, at my son's home, there were red birds flying all around, and I knew then that my daughter, who passed away two years ago, was with us," Brooks said. "I could feel her. I knew we were going to make it through this."

South from Alford on U.S. 281, it was clear that neighbors were gathering to help one another cope with the very evident destruction caused by Hurricane Michael. Relief centers appeared to have been set up at several churches and community centers on the road into Panama City.

In a nice home off Bear Creek Road in the Youngstown Community, an elderly man by the name of Billy Strickland had quietly grown desperate before help from an unlikely source arrived Saturday.

Strickland, who has lung cancer, lost power and had holes punched in his roof during Hurricane Michael. After the storm, with no power in his house and humidity in the air he needed medical attention. He was forced to go to Dothan, and now, for the first time, is relying on an oxygen tank.

"I can't do nothing. I depend on whatever help I can get," Strickland said.

Strickland said he did what he could to get someone to come out to his house and help, but to no avail. Finally, he called his granddaughter in Houston.

On Saturday, a group of scientists out of Pensacola arrived at his doorstep.

"She got me results I couldn't," he said.

The group jokingly called themselves "drinkers with a roofing problem." They set about putting tarps on Strickland's roof and moved fallen trees to the street.

Still without power, worried about the possibility of black mold and yet to have made contact with his insurance company, Strickland, appreciative as he was for Saturday's help, doesn't like the helplessness of his situation.

"I'm at the mercy of the system, I guess," he said. "I'm sure everybody feels like that. I hate to complain too much, but I sure can't do nothing."

To the west of the U.S. 281 corridor, Falling Waters State Park was also hammered by Hurricane Michael. Park Manager Aaron Miller and his wife Paula had to abandon their residence after two trees fell on it.

"A limb came through the roof in one of the bedrooms, so we put a bucket under it to catch the water," Miller said. "Then another tree fell on top of the first one and drove that limb down into the bucket. That's when we said 'enough.' "

Falling Waters, in Washington County, was one of several state parks that suffered storm damage, Miller said, and on Saturday forestry service crews from South Florida were on hand trying to clear debris from campsites and ensure that the 187 acre park could reopen.

"We've got the roads clear and the parking lot is OK," Miller said. " I foresee us getting parts of the park open very soon."

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