Current Projects in Region II

April 27, Birmingham, AL: Two to three years of house rebuilds

Over 100 tornados cut massive swaths of ruin through Alabama on April 27, slashing through the Birmingham suburbs of Pratt City and Pleasant Grove.

By April 29, Reuben Miller of the MDS Alabama Unit had rolled up his sleeves to help clear the wreckage. He’s been in the area since, finishing a six-week volunteer term as MDS Project Director in mid-June and turning over the reins to Phil Maneikis, of Schoolcraft, MI.

MDS has focused its response in the less affluent Pratt City, where 75 percent of the buildings were destroyed, Miller said.

Miller, of Atmore, AL, expects a two- to three-year MDS response in Pratt City, focusing on house rebuilds.

April 27, Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, AL: 90 percent rubble

The April 27 tornados churned 90 percent of Hackleburg’s buildings into rubble. The town suffered one of the highest per capita casualties of this spring’s tornados; 29 of the town’s 1,500 residents were killed.

Half the buildings in the town of Phil Campbell were similarly destroyed, said J.D. Landis, Interim Chair of the MDS Alabama Unit. Twenty-six people were killed.

A second MDS Alabama project site will help rebuild houses in these two small towns, located a few miles from one another and some 100 miles northwest of Birmingham.  

Because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is deploying Operation Clean Sweep, a new debris-clearing program, MDS is already rebuilding in parts of Phil Campbell. MDS anticipates working in Hackleburg and Phil Campbell through the coming winter, if not longer.

For Landis, used to working with hurricane recovery, this year’s tornados have been a “learning lesson.” 

“We’ve never had near so many tornados nor has the extent of damage been so wide,” said Landis, of Mobile, AL.

Comparing the two, Landis said tornados strike a limited corridor but with such force that they “tear strong structures and anything else in their path to pieces.” In contrast, “Everyone has some damage in a hurricane but it’s not so extreme,” he said.