Volunteers help senior citizens with storm cleanup in south Albany

Feb. 11--ALBANY -- Weeks after a devastating tornado struck the city, a group of Albany citizens and members of the Albany Civil Air Patrol, led by commissioner John Howard and Keep Albany Beautiful's Judy Bowles, continued to show their community spirit by volunteering to clean up storm damage along Kreg Avenue early Saturday.

According to Howard, who has been a champion of organizing community cleanup efforts in the wake of both the Jan. 2 and Jan. 22 storms, many of the residents in that area are senior citizens who have long since used up vital insurance resources, and desperately need the community's help to recover.

"We have several houses of senior citizens," said Howard. "So, what we are doing today with students from Lee County, Dougherty County and the Albany Civil Air Patrol, is volunteering to help clean up and help these senior citizens that are on a fixed income.

"Many of these residents have exhausted their money and can't pay anyone to help, so we have gathered people together that have the tools, chainsaws and backhoes, to come out here and help them."

The volunteers descended on the property of Vernita Miller, who lives at 1127 Kreg Avenue, around 9 am to cut up fallen trees and remove debris to the roadside.

"My roof was blown away along with two storage houses and the storm knocked down a bunch of trees," said Miller. "These volunteers are fantastic and it is amazing to see how the community is working from all areas. It's not just one county, it's all counties and it's people from out of town. I've experienced help from people throughout Georgia and perhaps beyond."

The Albany squadron of Civil Air Patrol had several cadets volunteers on site to help with broken trees that were still standing and had to be pulled down before crews could cut them into pieces and haul them to the roadside.

"We have more people coming out today," said the Albany squadron commander Lt. Col. Greg Fritch. "We have so far contributed 438 man days helping 48 home owners, doing search and rescue operations and we have been able to accumulate 102 volunteers from the civil air patrol helping out since the 3rd of January."

Volunteers worked around the remains of Miller's brick home which stands amid broken trees and scattered debris. The missing roof and exposed walls testify to the strength and ferocity of the January 22 tornado.

"They still haven't found my roof," said Miller. "But, if anyone says that the spirit of love and helping is gone, these volunteers are the complete demonstration that that's not true."

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