Last weekend, I had the pleasure of traveling with BR to Millbury, OH to help with cleanup following a series of devastating tornadoes across central Ohio. Our journey began on Friday morning, with Jim, Pete and myself loading up the van and departing Olean sometime between 9 and 9:30. A few hours later we met up with Andy just outside of Cleveland and arrived in Millbury around 3pm. As we arrived in town, it quickly sank in that this indeed was an area that hat been hit hard by the storms. As it was my first experience with tornadoes, I was awe struck by the damage left in its wake, and the completely random nature of its destruction. Driving down Main St. on our way to the volunteer center, we saw home after home that had sustained little to moderate damage, followed by a void of housing, where only slabs remained, proceeded by more houses showing progressively less damage. In one instance, two doors down from an empty slab of concrete, homes showed little to no damage and still had plants in the porch boxes. Not sure how many ways I can describe it, but it was truly mind-boggling.
Following our registration, we hooked up with Laura from HODR who had arrived the day before to scout and set up jobs for our team. Wrist bands distributed we headed to the intersection of Hille Rd. and Route 51 where we were greeted by piles upon piles of debris, brush, and already cut lumber. Our first order of business was to cut up some of the larger logs into more manageable sections, pull brush to the roadside and when necessary, use the pole saws to get some of the "hangers" out of harm's way. This process continued for most of the day with little exception. We did manage to take down a few larger trees that were in the way as well. Late in the afternoon, Laura reported that she had contacted a church in Clay Center, OH, a few short miles away, that had agreed to house us for the weekend. We wrapped up for the day given that another tornado warning had been issued and headed for the church.
The Presbyterian Church of Clay Center opened their doors to us, providing a roof over our heads, sinks to clean up with and a "base" of operations for our crew. Without their help, I'm unsure of how well we would have managed, having to haul both our personal gear and work equipment around with us. It turned out to be a great asset, where our team could recoup at the end of the day. We went grocery shopping and Jim made Rice & Beans for the group. I chose to hit up the Subway while we were nearby, feeling the need for something of more substance. We also picked up breakfast supplies and some other essentials to make our stay more enjoyable.
As the social hall of the church was a bit stifling, I chose to sleep in the church's sanctuary on what became known fondly as a "church bed". It consisted of 6 or 7 pew cushions lined up, with a fleece sleeping bag on top and my backpack for a pillow. Phil and Jen arrived late that night (after I was asleep) following what apparently turned out to be an interesting trip. The following morning, the crew awoke and got ready for a full day of work.
On day 2, we began at the same job site from Friday and we were blessed with the arrival of Chris, a professional tree servicer who brought climbing equipment and his own saws. He quickly became part of the BonaResponds crew and began work on trimming the rather large tree in the home owner's back yard, working to save as much as possible. It became obvious that a large part of our effort would be to not only remove the fallen timber, but also do our best to save as much as possible so that it would eventually repopulate the now treeless areas. While Chris and Andy worked on the large tree, I worked on trimming falling limbs and left over stumps and standing trees from along the stream bank. A second crew consisting of everyone other than Andy, Chris and myself moved on to a second site across the stream. Laura returned in the afternoon and we moved to downing a rather large ash tree that needed falling. Chris and Laura both got brief climbing lessons from Chris before we anchored the tree to Chris's truck to steer the tree as it fell. I had what I refer to as a "cartoon moment" during the falling, as I had expected the tree to go one way and it instead began to fall directly toward us. Needless to say I avoided being stamped out by the ash and we sectioned it up for removal by other locals.
I have to add at this point a comment about the overwhelming help that we had at the site. Along side our group we had a multitude of volunteers cleaning up sticks, raking, hauling away fallen lumber, offering us water, and the like. We met several locals that had turned out to help their neighbors from all walks of life and of all ages and levels of ability. Truly a remarkable demonstration of outreach to others. We provided many with BR business cards and bumper stickers as our way of saying thank you.
In the afternoon we wrapped up the first site and moved over to join the other crew. While I had thought the damage at site #1 was fairly significant, the second site was beyond comprehension. Where we had previously worked with perhaps a few dozen felled trees, the second reflected damage at a factor of 10. Hundreds upon hundreds of trees had been downed, damaged, or twisted beyond recognition. The house we worked at had been buried by trees, which in the days prior to our arrival had been pulled away layer by layer. It became our job to down to the remaining trees that needed it and to cut them up and move the lumber to the roadway where it could be loaded and removed. This continued for several hours, until we were summoned to the fire hall, where locals had prepared a meal for the volunteers. There was a mountain of food and it was a much appreciated break after a long day of work. We took time to say hello to the mayor again, and got pictures on the fire truck with the entirety of our crew.
After dinner, we returned to the site and worked until around 8pm. The sun setting, we loaded up and headed back to the church. The rain soon began to fall, and we took full advantage of the opportunity to shower under mother nature's faucet. It was perhaps the single most refreshing shower I have taken in my life. That night we welcomed Scott and his son Drew who had arrived at Chris's request with an excavator and ride behind scoop vehicle. We sat around that night, joking, talking, and just recapping both the destruction we had seen and the work we had accomplished. The crew wound down around 11pm and we retired to our church beds for the night.
On Sunday morning, we participated in the church's morning service. The pastor gave a wonderful sermon about justice, humility and service, and went the extra step to tie in some of St. Bonaventure's words and writings as they pertained to the situation. We also developed quite the harmony during the last of three hymns and Jim said a few kind words, thanking the parishioners for their generosity. Following services, we returned to the site and worked until 3:30pm downing, cutting, and hauling trees. At the end of the day, we loaded up the van, gave out more bumper stickers and trekked over to the fire hall where both Jim and Phil interviewed with the local ABC-TV affiliate. You can find the video on the BonaResponds website. Following the interview, we said our good-byes and got back on the road for the return trip. On our way out of town, we drove past the Lake High School, which had been partly demolished by the storm. Pictures are available on Flickr under either my account or the BonaResponds link.
Many hours later, we arrived in Olean and unpacked the van. It was three days of amazing work, with amazing people, among amazing devastation. I'm proud to have been able to take part, and look forward to my next opportunity to serve others.
-Nate
**Pre-tornado photos from Google Earth.
