Valor volunteers help tornado victims
Valor volunteers deliver supplies in a tornado-ravaged region of Alabama. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Valor team members who volunteers in Alabama, from left are: Dennis Schall Jr, Glen Lippincott, Jeremiah Johnson, Charlie Bailey, Josh Schall, Sean Estes, Andrew Roxby and Doug Serfass
A group of nine Valor volunteers spent six days in Lee County, Alabama providing disaster relief after an EF4 tornado hit on March 3.
“We helped hundreds, maybe 1,000 people down there. The devastation was unimaginable — like a scene from World War II or Vietnam,” said Glen Lippincott, a Valor board member and operation coordinator.
Eight volunteers from Paul’s House in Jonas and one volunteer from the Thunderbird chapter in New Jersey traveled about 1,000 miles.
“We thought we could make a quick difference up front. This is a situation with acute homelessness. It’s short but severe,” Lippincott said.
They rented a 26-foot box truck and took four of their Valor trailers loaded with supplies — food, water, clothing and hygiene items — donated by the community.
Some of the group arrived March 7 and the others came the next day.
Upon arriving, they had to go through a safety briefing. They set up tents and camped behind City Hall in the town of Smiths Station during their stay in Alabama.
Grief counselors were available if needed.
They had to wear gloves and face masks and use hand sanitizer as precautions.
“Lee County officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had seamless coordination,” said Lippincott. “There was no confusion when we arrived. We split our teams up.”
Valor volunteers helped at three distribution sites in the county, handing out the supplies they brought.
The tornado went west to east, hitting towns such as Beauregard and Smiths Station.
“With winds of as much as 170 mph, the deadliest U.S. tornado in nearly six years rolled mobile homes across fields and caused even brick homes to collapse into unrecognizable heaps,” The Associated Press reported last week.
Twenty-three people were killed in Beauregard. Providence Baptist Church set up a memorial in the form of 23 crosses with an inscribed name and a red heart attached to each.
“It ripped up an elementary school in Smiths Station and the Lake Oliver community lost power,” Lippincott said.
Some were without power for five days, as the electric companies worked to restore it.
“We saw houses missing from their foundation, mobile homes blown apart, a mangled semi-truck, a pond sucked dry by the tornado and lots of trees cut off,” said Mike Perry, Valor board member and Thunderbird president.
“Its rotation pulled water up into the cone and it came down as rain. Our guys could hardly believe it,” Lippincott said.
One of their guys saw a dead pig. Trees were strewn all over the place.
“Four of us went out to do cleanup of trees. We drug them from yards out to the curb for pick up,” Perry said.
FEMA handed out tarps and nails for volunteers to attach to damaged roofs before a thunderstorm came through and did more damage, Lippincott said.
Pictures and stories were shared on social media. #LeeCountyStrong is trending on Twitter.
“They are pretty resilient,” Lippincott said.
Perry has seen destruction caused by hurricanes before, but this was the first time he witnessed tornado devastation.
“They have a long way to go. We softened the blow for some of them. It’s a start,” he said.
Lippincott said they are still accepting cash donations at Paul’s House in Jonas.
“Our biggest expense was fuel costs to get down there and back,” he said.
Comments
But, only a moron rebuilds where it happens more than three times. These IDIOTS need to get off the public tit. They cry Socialism, until it's to their benefit. You hypocrites need to rely on your jesus. I'm sick of supporting inbred, double wide living, losers who lick the trump pump.