Monday, July 11, 2011
Wow! What a day! We got an early start this morning. Almost everyone was up and ready to go by 7:30 am. Some of the men were at the worksite by 6:30 am. At breakfast we met some people from the Army Corp of Engineers. One of them has been here since right after the tornado came through. He stopped by a couple times today.
It was very heartbreaking to see our first sight of the destruction the tornado caused in the daylight. As we neared Hackleburg, we could see the sticks standing were trees had been. There are about 25 trailers lined up in 5 rows of 5 withs connecting walkways. More will be moved in. This will be their school until their grade school and high school can be rebuilt. The pastor of Hackleburg Community Church, Pastor Clink Knowles, and his son were there with us throughout the day. School had been dismissed the day of the tornado. Pastor Knowles' son told us that if you go over and look down the hall of the high school where he is a student, the hall if full of debris. Hackleburg Community Church was Hackleburg Church of God of Prophecy before the tornado hit. They became the Hackleburg Community Church because several churches in Hackleburg lost their buildings and have combined together and meet in the tent structure at the front of the parking lot. Our youth group has been invited to the Youth Service Wed. night at Hackleburg Community Church. They are looking forward to meeting their youth group. The youth have worked hard today pulling nails, sweeping floors and picking up debris. The men have straigtened walls today and did other work on the upstairs flooring.
We served tacos and nachos for lunch and had several workers from the community and some from the church came to enjoy the meal.
We cleaned up and headed back to the hotel at 3 pm. We had some time to just relax for a little while before we went out to eat.
The video below the slideshow was taken as we entered Hackleburg today.