Tornado Status — Friday Edition

As many have heard, our sister congregation, the Central Church of Christ, lost its building. Here are some photos. The first is from the front — off Hargrove Road. You can see that several relief workers are staging from their parking lot.

The second is from a different angle.

This last one is not a picture of the building at all but of the residential neighborhood that surrounded it.

It’s hard to describe the destruction. Although the official death count is in the 30s, I’m hearing from nurses and relief workers that it will be in the hundreds if not higher. They are having trouble finding places to store the bodies. Portable morgues are being brought into the city.

The national guard has been brought in due to looting in some of the high crime areas that were hit, although looting is not a problem in most of the city.

Most of the area remains unavailable to the public, as workers are still trying to fix gas leaks and fallen power lines. Search and rescue is still ongoing. Police have been brought in from Montgomery to help keep the area secure. There’s a curfew in effect.

The University Church of Christ is providing transient housing for workers and a few families that are going to be able to relocate to apartments. Longer term shelter is being provided by several public buildings and churches. Countless churches and volunteer groups are pulling together to help out.

Transportation in town is nearly impossible. North of the river is no problem, but the three major roads in town — US Highway 82, Fifteenth Street, and University Blvd — are closed for long stretches. Some of the alternative routes, such as Crescent Ridge Road and parts of Greensboro Road, are also closed. The result is to force everyone onto the I-359 spur to go either north-south or east-west. It’s beyond capacity.

I finally have power back at my house, but large portions of the city remain without power. All of Huntsville, parts of Birmingham, and most of North Alabama have also lost power, even if not severely hit by tornadoes. Some of the largest power lines were taken down, and some areas may have to wait weeks for electricity. Fortunately, it’s not hot (yet).

Perhaps the most distressing thing is the destruction of the EMA center and the Salvation Army facility, as well as the facilities of several other charities, meaning that a substantial part of the disaster recovery infrastructure was destroyed. Coordination has been a problem. Fortunately, cell towers are being repaired and phone lines restored, which is helping immensely.

Several rural towns have been destroyed — as in they no longer exist. I’m told that Hackleburg lost not only its downtown but its major employer, leaving virtually nothing of the town. Several towns are in the same condition.

The larger cities, including Tuscaloosa, have many citizens who survived who can help the others dig out. The smaller towns generally have no public services left at all, often have no power and no phones, and are struggling greatly. Please keep them in your prayers. And these smaller communities likely need volunteers more than Tuscaloosa.

Tuscaloosa has a great need for supplies and donations, but much less need for volunteers, as it’s a community of over 200,000 that might have lost 1,000 — compared to towns of 200 that lost 50 or more.

The city water system has been damaged, and so they’re telling those in the eastern part of the city to boil water before drinking or cooking with it. Tuscaloosa is running low on many supplies, as many of the stores are destroyed or under lock down, and the others simply weren’t expecting to have to supply such a need. Bottled water is quickly becoming a major need.

Thousands of families have been displaced. Some have been able to move in with neighbors, but many are in makeshift shelters, have no money, and no way to shop for supplies. The major emergency relief warehouses were destroyed, and the citizens have about cleaned out the supplies available to buy.

In the next post, I’ll update you on how to volunteer and donate to help those in need.