Fuji!
While I was in Gadsden, I had the chance to meet up with Carol, one of the very cool librarians who graciously hooked me up when I walked through town in 2008. Here Eric, her boyfriend, and I are at Fuji, a Chinese restaurant with a fantastic sense of interior decor.
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Cecilia
Paul, one of my best friends from growing up, and his wife Sara gave birth to their first baby last night. I went to the hospital today to visit little Cecilia. She’s very cute but she didn’t have much to say. 🙂
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More scenes from Alabama
A Red Cross case worker tapes a “Sorry We Missed You” note to what’s left of a family’s property.
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Fried whaaaaat?
Another southern delicacy: Fried Twinkies. Did not try, maybe next time. Photo from Gadsden’s First Friday, when the city turns downtown’s main street into a block party.
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The Things They Had
After the tornado destroyed their home, everything the family owns fits under this tarp. Since there are no more doors or locks, someone needs to always stay with the stuff to protect from looters.
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Faith
More photos of the tornadoes’ destruction in Sylvania, Alabama. This was once a family’s home.
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ECRV
I have all these good photos and stories from Alabama, and I keep forgetting to post them. Anyways, this is a photo of a Red Cross Emergency Communication Response Vehicle (ECRV). There are about fifteen of these trucks based around the United States. Each has a built-in satellite dish on top (as you can see) and a server inside, as well as a supply of laptops, shortwave and longwave radios, cell phones, and communication equipment. The ECRV teams are some of the first units deployed and once they arrive at a building (usually an empty warehouse or out-of-business big box store), they can establish a satellite link, fire up an Internet connection, set up a network, and wire an operation headquarters within hours. (This truck was parked in Guntersville to allow Red Cross case workers to electronically open and file claims as tornado victims came into the senior center-turned-service center). Now that I’m on the Disaster Service Technology (DST) Team, later on this year I’ll be learning to set up, operate and maintain New England’s ECRV (which is based in Farmington CT).
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Virgil
While I was at a feeding station last week, an old man pulled up in his SUV plastered with Bible verses. “My name is Virgil, and I’m too old to help all these people out, so all I can do is pray. Will you pray with me?” So four big muscular guys, the other nurse and I got into an impromptu semi circle around Virgil’s driver’s side door, held hands and bowed our heads. And Lord, Virgil may have been too old to help out, but he could pray like his life depended on it. So if you see an old man just barely reaching over the steering wheel of an SUV decorated with Gospel driving around Dekalb County, stop and say Hi. We all gotta do what we can.
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