After a short night of sleep, our day began with a guided tour through the devastated area with Karry, a young lady from Cragfont Baptist Church. As we went through each area, Karry greeted residents on the roads giving tips on how to navigate around the debris and over the many of the roads that were still not accessible.

As we drove passed homes, Karry told us personal stories about the neighborhoods that brought the disaster home to each of us. With each home we passed, Karry told how grateful she was that her life was spared. Her home was only minutes from the hardest hit areas of the county.

Karry continued on telling us stories of people in the community and pointed to one house where a member of her church found an elderly lady’s remains. She then pointed out a creek bed where a mom was found dead and search and rescue teams then found her baby alive in the rubble.

We met our Hunger Strike Force truck that delivered 19,000 pounds of personal hygiene items and paper products that included diapers, toilet paper and snacks.

Our OBI team worked with the men of the church to unload supplies. We also loaded a rented Penske truck with 8,000 pounds of supplies and sent it to a First Assembly of God church located in Atkins, AK. This expanded our reach from TN to AK.

After the trucks were unloaded our team headed to a Lafayette, which is in Macon County, TN. The Sumner County EM Director asked us to check on them because there were a lot of needs in the area. When we arrived, we met with Emergency Management Staff and were surprised to hear there is still half of the county without power. Roads are still shut down leaving stranded families little access to help. We offered our assistance and left our contact information.

We headed back to Cragfont to pick up some equipment. As we arrived, the church was swarming with activity. Church members that had been tirelessly working for days still had excitement and were driven by their love for their neighbors. As we entered the church to touch base with the staff, we met up with the Governor of Tennessee, Phil Bredesen. The Governor took time to talk with me for several minutes and expressing his gratitude for our help.

We wrapped up the day by meeting with the EM Director, Ken Weidner, who let us store our equipment at his home. We then set up a work schedule for tomorrow that will include our construction coordinator, Joe Boyle. These roads will allow residents to re-enter areas and sift through the rubble left of their homes. Many would think it is trash, but to them the dirty pictures and broken nick-knacks represent all they have left of the memories they shared with their families.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Jody Herrington, North America, US. Tornadoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.