Island neighbors offering aid

Thu, May 15, 2008

By ANNA FERGUSON

The Brunswick News

In the emotional whirlwind that has followed Sunday's destructive tornado, Glynn County residents are finding refuge in the kindness of neighbors.

Slanted rain and destructive winds swept past Kevin Barber's house Sunday, but he never heard the rumble of a passing freight train that is often associated with tornadoes.

"But we knew it was a tornado," said Barber, a resident of 100 Enclave Lane, in The Enclave at Sea Palms West on St. Simons Island, where the tornado struck.

Once the storm passed, Barber and his son, Charles-Ryan, stepped outside to find that their neighborhood had been flipped upside down. Tree branches were strewn about the street, neighbor's homes were all but destroyed and uprooted live oaks were resting on nearby cars.

And then, they turned around. Their own home had been equally devastated by the powerful storm, with a tree going through the second story. Bedroom windows had been sucked out of the frames and the garage literally crunched by strong winds.

"It was like a 'Wizard of Oz' moment," said Charles-Ryan Barber, 25.

Added his father, "You know the scene where everything goes from black-and-white to color? That's what it felt like."

The Barbers didn't have much time to worry about the wreckage. Not even an hour had passed before a band of volunteers came calling.

Members of St. Simons Island Community Church and Northside Baptist Church in Brunswick, as well as Red Cross volunteers and other residents, had joined forces and jumped into action.

"Just out of no where there were all these people here to help. It was people we knew and people we didn't know," Kevin Barber said.

"It was truly amazing. We felt so blessed."

They came with hammers and tarps, chain saws and ladders, ready to get to work. Charles-Ryan Barber also joined the team of volunteers, quickly organizing communication networks between the groups of volunteers.

"I tried to make sure the different sites knew what was going on to keep the lines of communication open. Like if one site had a hammer and the other site needed it," said Charles-Ryan Barber, who had organized volunteer efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and other places.

A large mound of branches and limbs now sits in the center of Barber's yard. The collection of debris had been scattered across their property, but after a few hours of labor from the volunteer teams, the driveway was cleared and their home was in a semi-working order.

"It was incredible how different it looked once they had finished working," said Charles-Ryan Barber.

"By the end of the day, they had cleared all of this," Kevin Barber said, pointing to the pile of debris. "It's still going to take a few weeks to get everything back to normal, but this got us off to a very good start."

Volunteers worked at the Barber home and throughout the Sea Palms neighborhood Sunday until it was too dark to see. They then headed home, only to return the next day and the next, said Scott McVey, assistant pastor at Northside Baptist Church.

Three men from Northside volunteered earlier this week to clear out the tornado wreckage as part of the church's disaster relief ministry.

"It's not surprising that the community has come together like this. It's what a community should do, but it is also beyond the expectations," McVey said. "It's really a great thing."

No one has to tell that to Sharon and Michael Flores. On Tuesday, a group of Red Cross volunteers armed with chain saws, garden gloves and empathy hacked its way through large fallen oak trees that littered the couple's yard after the tornado tossed trees around at their 1030 Sea Palms West Drive residence in the Enclave.

"We didn't know any of these people," said Sharon Flores as she watched the men and women in amazement busily tackle the mammoth job of cleanup. "They just showed up. Can you believe it?

"I am just overwhelmed by the goodness of these people who don't even know us. We never thought anyone else, other than our friends, would show up and help us."

– News Reporter Emily Stranger contributed

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