March 2, 2012 Tornado Aftermath
About 9:30 AM we got hit with what they are now calling an EF-3 Tornado. From the news that means about 140 MPH winds. We got lucky! Our house has a few shingles off but nothing major. Unfortunately our barns and farm didn't fair so well. All our horses, dogs and cat survived. Only one had a scrap on her face. We had two barns totaled, one barn needs a new roof, our sawdust shed is gone, the well house is destroyed and our fences are a mess.
On the plus side we all survived and we have some great friends. First off we had to move six horses to another farm. Thanks Steel Prize Stables. Today we had 15 or so people helping cleanup everything from cutting trees off fences to picking up the remains of our barns. Thanks everyone. See the Photo Gallery for Pictures.
March 11, 2012 Update
Wow, what a week. We really want to thank all the people who helped us.
On Friday Dr. Dunlap of North Alabama Equine Hospital and Cathy Zappe helped us move all the horses off the property to Judith and Bill Fiorentino's Steel Prize Stables. That was a big relief for us. We only had 2 stalls left (out of 12) that had any type of roof left and it was still going to be stormy. Also Gary Stiles and Bill Girty helped get our driveways cleared, both were blocked. Thanks to everyone. Here are a couple of photos from NAEH's Facebook page.
On Saturday we had an army of people just picking up parts of barns, buildings from neighbors and trees. It really helped us, it was just a lot to absorb and just figure out what do to next. Thanks to Linda Ogilvie, Terri Schmitt, Carol Burns, Pat Burns, Marjorie Weeks, Mike Weeks, Alex Weeks, Gary Stiles, Patti O'Toole, Linda Wilson, Cathy Zappe, Harold Zappe, Bill Girty, Diane Girty, John Bowman, Shirley Bowman and Don Jarmon. I hope I haven't missed anyone, it's been a blur.
Sunday, we had more help. Pat Burns, Carol Burns, Patti O'Toole, Linda Ogilvie and John Bowman showed up and worked. We had a couple of volunteers from the United Way and they gave us a bunch of traps to cover hay and equipment. We started getting a paddock set back up with fences and gates. Pat rigged the generator up to the barn to at least get some lights and power for tools. Continued picking up junk. It's amazing how far stuff got blown. We found stuff from the barns 800' away in a tree line and stuff on out property from more than mile away. Some stuff we have not even found a trace of. Sue Kilpatrick and Jorge Auñón stopped by to offer some encouragement. They went through the EF-5 tornado at there home/farm on April 27, 2011.
Monday, worked on getting the roof structure back up on the barn. Thanks to John Bowman for helping. One of the United Way volunteers came back and helped cleanup more junk. He and Kim worked in the upper barn finding stuff that's been scattered about.
Tuesday, we got most of the roof back on the lower barn (I guess the only barn for now) and finished the one paddock. Bill Girty came out and helped with the roof, sure is easier not having to climb the ladder over and over.
Wednesday, finished the roof. We moved two horses back on the place. Thanks to Penny, Nicki, Linda Wilson and Judith for helping load the horses. They were difficult to load and it took a while. We just keep hauling stuff down to the road. Kim has been loading and unloading the trailer almost all week. Kim got all the hay equipment covered also. Unfortunately, she also stepped on an old rusty nail (more on that later). Kim got all the stalls ready for the horses and worked on fences too.
Thursday, we spent most of the day getting ready for the rain. We moved all the hay that we could salvage from the loft down to some stalls that had a little cover. We covered it all with tarps as best we could. We also got some help from the neighbor on getting our power back to the barns. The meter base was ripped from the wall and had to be replaced. Kim went to Linda Ogilvie's place to clear the vines away from a dog kennel that we are going to use for a while. Kim's foot wasn't looking too good so we got to visit the new emergency room at Huntsville Hospital in Madison. We didn't stay long since the wait was over 5 hours. We went down to Crestwood's Emergency room and got in about 15 minutes. After they took out a piece of her tennis shoe and some rust out of her foot, they gave her a big antibiotic shot and we were out of there.
Friday, went to get Kim some real work shoes. After a few detours we got the power back on. It's much quieter without the generator noise. Started work on the second paddock, setting posts for gates and splicing in new fencing. Kim spent a bunch of time cleaning out a storage area so we could put a dog kennel in to give the outside dogs a place to spend the night. Hopefully in the next week, we can rebuild their outside kennel. Once all the horses come back we will not have a stall for the dogs.
Saturday, moved the kennel to the farm and got it set up. Bill Girty helped me move the kennel and then he spent the whole day helping me get the second paddock repaired. We should have all the horses back tomorrow! Kim, Linda Ogilvie and Carol Burns spent the day clearing out what was left of the feed/tack room it the upper barn. They cleaned and sorted everything from that room and the lower feed room.
Sunday, we moved the rest of the horses back to our place. Everyone is now in one barn and we are full up. Worked on fences, gates, and getting a solar hot box working on the second paddock. We did just a lot of small things that needed to be done. Everyone is tucked in their stalls for the rain tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow is back to work and maybe catching our breath. We know that rebuilding is a marathon but this week felt like a sprint.
Overall, we are making progress but have a long way to go. Without the help of our friends, we would not have gotten as much done. Thanks everyone, don't know how we would have done it without you. Kim's folks have been great, helping us with sandwiches for the crew on Saturday and meals for us this week. We have a long way to go to being functional and an even longer way to go to get back to where we were. It's hard to believe it but we are really lucky. No one was hurt, none of the animals were hurt, and the house was mostly intact. There were a lot of people near us who were not so lucky.
Thanks everyone!!!!!
Kim and Bernie
March 19, 2012 Update
Cleanup continues and the upper barn is coming down. It sure comes down a lot faster than it went up. I think I overstructured it a bit and that's slowing the crew that is pulling it down. The old hay barn will probably be burned in place once we salvage what we want from it. It's mostly down on the ground and really not much to save. The skyline view is sure different now between the missing barns and the pine trees down or snapped off.
We are saving as much as we can from the upper barn to use in building sheds for horses in the two paddocks and a new sawdust shed. Once it is down, then we have to get the site prepped for a new barn and shop.
Both of us never expected that the upper barn wouldn't be there. The double walled oak stalls protected the horses, I think things would have been much worse if they were out or in thin walled stalls.
Having all of the horses in one barn has it's pro and cons. We used to keep the mares and the stallion/geldings seperate. Not sure who makes more noise, stallions or mares.
We are still trying to get our morning and evening routines worked out. While daylight saving time is great in the evening but at 5:00 AM is it really dark.
Lots of slow progress. We got the water back in the lower barn and the one paddock. Both freeze spighots were snapped off at the bottom when the tornado came through. Kim is still picking up and started burning some of the piles of trees and barn debris. This weekend there is a church group that is going to come by to walk the pastures before the grass gets too high. We are also going to work on getting pine trees cleared in the hay fields.
Hopefully this weekend we can get some more security lights up, it's really dark with only the one light. We used to have five lights out there. We also are going try to get the dogs back into there dog kennel. If you saw the pictures, the dog houses survived but the fencing got flattened and their shade tree is destroyed. What's left of the tree needs to cut down.
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