i went out yesterday to some of the most effected areas to try and take food and water to the areas that service vehicles couldn't make it to. My friend Abner and I spent most of the day with an average of 40 water bottles in a backpack and two boxes of various food stuffs. When we would run out we would hike back out to the access roads and ask donation centers for more whatever and food and then we would turn back around and head into the debris.
I had seen pictures of the area we were before we headed out there and even though I had been going to this particular part of town for almost 15 years (visiting friends and businesses) i wouldn't tell where ANYTHING was suppose to be. For every one house standing there was 5 that were leveled. Cars were laying on their roofs,sections of metal roofing were wrapped around telephone poles like plastic ribbons and what few structures that were standing were marked with Xs and Os along with addition markings indicating that they had been checked and cleared or bodies were found.
We walked out of the debris and into someones front lawn as an elderly woman sat crying with her head in her hand and i felt so worthless because all i could do was offer food and water. She told us about how she lost so much but was lucky enough to have a rental home on the other side of town she was able to open up to those worse off than herself. I was amazed. We wished her luck and continued through the debris. We climbed over trees that seemed to large to fall, through living rooms that were reduced to broken couches and mangled children's toys.
After a few miles we came across a neighborhood that was mostly Hispanic that hadn't gotten aid simply because they were unable to tell people they needed help. Luckily Abner is bilingual and we were able to get Capri sun, poptarts and canned peaches to the kids and hot plates and MREs to the parents. After checking to see if there was anything else we could help them with we were on our way yet again.
We made our way back out to the main road and came across another volunteer tent and we topped off on supplies.We apparently looked burnt and tired because they made us sit down to eat and drink and then sent addition rations for us later down the road (we gave them away). After taking a short break we headed in the direction were some friends of ours lived. We made it to or friends neighborhood, passing supplies out along the way. Once we got there we started looking around to find their motorcycles had been slammed into the side of the house (they were inside detached garage), the floor of the garage was under the house and our friends truck was sitting in was use to be his living room...it was alot to take in and they were beyond lucky to be alive. To add insult to injury someone had stolen his amp and subs out of his truck while he was in the hospital (injury's sustained during the storm).
By the time we were done in our friends neighborhood it was late in the day and we were both badly sunburned, tired, dehydrated and very hungry and since the roads were opening up to service vehicles we decided to start the long hike back to our truck.
Today i am tired, sore, burned and i have blood blisters from the straps on my backpack but every time i want to complain i think about all the people i met yesterday and I know my sacrifice is very little compared to some. I took great joy in peoples gratitude yesterday. Its a shame it takes something like this to bring people together but i am so glad they did.
Google Tuscaloosa Storm damage for images
