TUSCALOOSA – They sawed trees and moved limbs until their muscles ached, unloaded scores of cases of water and helped patch roofs in the hot sun, but the hardest thing a group of Dothan-area volunteers did during their recent trip here was tell a woman her home was unlivable.
Robin Haven lived in the Brookwood area around Gilmore Mine Road her whole life. Wednesday evening, she huddled in the bathroom of her mobile home while the snap and crackle of trees ended with a thud when a large oak smashed through her bedroom just a few feet away.
All she wanted was a few helping hands to cut the tree and get it out of her bedroom, but the damage was too much. Limbs and debris poked holes in other parts of her mobile home, making it impossible to salvage.
“It’s not much, but it’s all I have,” she said. Soon FEMA workers will assess the home as a total loss. With good fortune, she will be able to place another one in the same place. But, it won’t be the same.
Haven’s home on Gilmore Mine Road was one of several stops during a two-day trip to Tuscaloosa organized by Logos Baptist Church pastor Rev. David Anderson and State Rep. Paul Lee, a Logos member. Lee worked with State Rep. John Merrill of Tuscaloosa to allow the group access to some of the areas most stricken by Wednesday’s tornado.
The group of around 30 began Friday by unloading about 50 cases of water at a Salvation Army distribution point on Skyland Boulevard. From there, the group helped remove two trees from a home on 2nd Avenue in Tuscaloosa.
Saturday, the group unloaded an additional 175 cases of water at a distribution point at Holt High School. From there, they went to the Coaling community for tree removal. After the stop on Gilmore Mine Road, they headed over to Rifle Range Road for more tree removal and roofing work before finishing near the old rock quarry near Holt Lock and Dam with tree removal.
About 18 members of the group were from Logos. The rest of the group consisted of members from other churches including Grandview, First Baptist of Dothan and Ridgecrest.
“People don’t give a lot of attention to what we believe if they don’t see us doing what we believe,” Anderson said. “We wanted to come and do what we could in the time we had. When people are hurting, we need to be underneath that load helping them carry it.”
Anderson said he was overwhelmed at the devastation.
“You would have a hard time believing there were people who lived here and businesses here just Wednesday,” he said. “The places we went looked like nothing had been there for 30 years.”
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