Sunday, October 6, 2024
January 12, 2023 brought 15 tornadoes to the state of Alabama, including one tornado that tracked right through the heart of Selma, with top winds of 130 MPH. Monday, September 30 marked the official start to the NOMADS efforts to assist in the long term recovery of the city of Selma. As team leaders for the beginning of the project we first visited the site in June of 2024 to meet with Bud, the construction coordinator. We returned September 24th to prepare for the arrival of our teams and visit job sites.
Friday, our first team members arrived, Carolyn and Gene. Unfortunately, our next couple, Herman and Janis had to cancel to return to their home which had been damaged by Hurricane Helene. On Sunday Bill and Becky arrived after having to delay travel due to the effects of Helene. We were very excited when we received a call that Bob and Leone were joining us Monday afternoon due to their NC project being cancelled. In the mist of all the tragedy caused by Helene, we remind ourselves that places like Selma are now off the TV news and masses of volunteers are no longer arriving. There is still much work to be done in Selma and we are so proud to have NOMADS as part of the long term recovery efforts.
Monday morning, the team began work on our first house. Tommy’s home suffered wind and water damage and was further damaged and emptied by looters. The first priority was to replace the exterior doors so the house would be secure. While that was being done, the rest of the team then began demo work, removing damaged drywall and paneling and flooring. Then began the repairs to the wall framing and drywall. That continued through Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thursday began a new adventure for our NOMADS team. We began working alongside some employees of Fannie Mae, a government lending agency, that came to Selma to volunteer in the recovery. Fannie Mae encourages their employees to volunteer to serve in communities and allows them some time off to do so. There were about 30 people, most with minimal construction experience, that volunteered to help make a difference for the people of Selma. They came with their own team leaders and our four NOMADS couples became the “expert” advisors. We really were Bud’s (construction coordinator) eyes and ears at each of the five homes where we worked on Thursday and Friday. Team one continued our work at Tommy’s home, continuing the demo work we had begun and began hanging drywall. Team 2 worked at a home that had ceiling and wall drywall work. Team 2 moved to a house needing exterior painting on Friday. The third team worked on windows, and drywall at house 3.
We were at the fourth house both Thursday and Friday. It needed exterior siding to be replaced and bathroom flooring and ceiling repairs. The house next door had burned, and the fire damaged the siding on about half the right side of our house. We had two volunteers that had some experience with siding and after we helped them get started, they moved right along, mostly completing that job by Thursday afternoon. The two ladies working on the floor in the small bathroom seemed to really enjoy learning new skills. They had never used the tools we used to removed three layers of subfloor to repair damage from a leaking toilet. They worked hard on a dirty job and we got most of the subfloor and the toilet reinstalled before the end of the day so our homeowner had a working bathroom. Friday we assisted the team in installing the last of the subfloor, installing a ceiling fan and removing the ceiling tiles and replacing them with drywall. Anne even taught a beginning class on taping and mudding the ceiling.
It was a very busy week, and yes, we NOMADS worked on Friday. We will be taking an extra day off next week and all the team members were in agreement that it was the right thing to do. It was a great experience for us too. New friends were made, faith discussions took place, and we have two people interested in NOMADS membership. Great way to start our DR in Selma.
RVing With a Purpose 