I only took 4 pictures while I was there because I just didn't feel right taking pictures of another person's anguish.
I'm only going to post this one. It is (was) the Wrangler Jeans plant. This picture doesn't quite paint the whole picture. It looks like an 80 ft tall scrap heap. There are jeans all over town and pieces of the roof. Large sheets of tin balled up like aluminum foil. If there are people inside this building I don't see that they will ever be able to find them. Wrangler has said they don't know if they are going to rebuild here. That is the main place that people work. What will they do without it later on?
What struck me was the things you don't hear that you don't realize you are used to hearing. You don't hear the hum of the power lines because there are none. Therefore there are no ac units running. I didn't see not one dog or cat or animal. You don't hear birds. In fact I saw several dead birds laying around. Another thing I didn't hear was crying. It seemed that everyone had accepted the reality of the situation and were in work mode. All you can hear is the sound of cars, people talking and the occasional bob cat running in the background. The air is chunky with insulation (and asbestos) flying around. The smells are a mix of downed fresh pine trees, sewage and the a faint aroma of the grocery store that was leveled with food inside. That is now rotting.
The roads are mostly one lane because of the debris (seems harsh to call it debris because these are what's left of people's homes) covering most of the roads. Although I have heard most of that has been cleared as of today.
The day started early and after 2 and a half hours we arrived at our meeting place in Hamilton and were given our mission of finding people in the outlying areas (middle of absolutely no where) that needed supplies. None of us were from this area and maps were not given and cell phones don't work there. (They didn't work before the storms. It's that far out.) It was a total waste of time. These were places where small tornadoes dropped and hit one or 2 houses and then went back up. It would be like your neighbor's house getting taken out and you not going to check on them. 10 days later they have no home but they are being cared for by neighbors and family. Their immediate needs have been met. There are volunteers all over town stopping to pass out waters and snacks to locals and volunteers. Some of the people helping aren't from here and are not used to the humidity and heat, they especially need to drink plenty of water. I didn't really meet anyone that didn't seem to really want to help in some way.
Nana, her sister and her husband even found a job for them. Passing out hot dogs and hamburgers to anyone who wanted them with a man and a woman from Reform. They fed all the state troopers and volunteers that came by. Great job for them since they can't do clean up or lift heavy boxes of supplies. We stopped and I ate a hamburger. I didn't want it and barely even tasted it but I knew that I needed to eat to be able to continue.
So after 4 hours of getting no where we headed into Hackleburg. We stopped at a house up on a hill just behind the Wrangler plant where the owners were working and asked if we could help. We spent several hours picking up what used to be a beautiful home. You could tell from the pieces of hardwood flooring and tile. As we worked we were told the woman's story. Her husband had just died of cancer on the first. They owned 2 businesses in town plus the home. All were destroyed. This woman had lost everything in her whole world all at the same time. I can't begin to imagine her pain.
Up by the house the smell was horrible, sewage I suppose. But I hardly noticed. My mind was other places. As I sifted through the last remaining pieces of this woman's life, it seemed selfish to comment on it. I also realized a time or 2 that I had stopped working. I didn't know I had stopped or for how long. It might have been only a second or two or could have been a few minutes. I snapped back realizing I was just looking around kinda glassy eyed. Taking it all in. After I became aware that I was doing it, I noticed lots of people doing the same thing. Snapping back and getting back to work.
Up by the house, we found pictures, dishes that had been spared and even a ceramic egg from an Easter decoration that was intact all intertwined with blue jeans and pieces of metal from the plant. Although the entire house was gone except the sub-floor and basement, there were 2 potted plants that were untouched.
But this woman was not bitter or why me. She seemed to have accepted that this was life now or was still in such shock she wasn't processing it at all. She only choked up one time and that was because when they had first built their home in 1968 they had written their name on a rock on the foundation. We were unable to find it. You could just tell that at that moment she was broken. We hunted and hunted trying to find that rock but were just unable. I would have given anything to find it for her.
Finally it was time for us to head back home since the drive was so long. I plan on returning to help with the efforts as often as I can afford the gas to go. These people will need it for months. It feels good to be a part of the clean up. Although not in a pat myself on the back kind of way. It was by far the most sobering experience of my whole life. However I was not outwardly emotional. I kept it together the whole time I was there and the way back. I didn't think it would help anything. But I felt very somber the whole time. I didn't actually break down until I was trying to recall the events of the day and all the things I had seen back to Wes.
I have thought about my time there a lot this week. There are some things you just can't unsee.
