Tornado Disaster - Crosstown

There's a lot to write on so I'm going to have to be brief right now. Two weeks ago I saw RJD2 and Mann Mann play - the RJ show was pretty good the crowd was as usual - not as energetic as I was - standing there like statues - it hurt the experience. There was some good breakdancing behind us so half the crowd turned to watch them. Then we took off to go catch Mann play. We walked in right behind Honus and no one asked for a ticket, which was nice. It was at a really cool venue - just a big frat looking house, great show, again the crowd not dancing as they should.
I took off Sunday in a van with 10 others to Crosstown, SE MO. A bunch of tornadoes hit this area, an F4 hit Crosstown. 60+ homes destroyed, 100's of acres of trees downed - no one died luckily. Throughout the week more and more of the ERT team arrived until we were at 26 memebers out of the 34. My week consisted of dragging branches, non-burnables and carrying blocked wood (from the sawyers) to seperate piles. Yep. I got to chainsaw a little bit, about 1.5 hrs total - it's really fun. I was in a crew of 5 most of the time with Adam Z. as my leader, we got pretty tight during the week. We worked for a guy named Gary Bonert (the 't' is silent - no joke). He would drive around on his 4-wheeler, no shirt or unbuttoned shirt, cigar in his mouth telling us where he wanted this and this and what to clean up in his yard. He was a hoot. I can't explicate the type of southern, hick drawl he expounded with. We bumped into him at the Super 8 in a nearby town (Perryville) where they were bbqing food and providing beer for the volunteers. He was heading to the hot tub with a bunch of rum and cokes and provided amply for "his crew". We were also working with the Amish and Service International. I tried to chat up some Amish guys but they sure are men of few words. They were from near Carbondale, IL and they were alerted of a tornado nearby due to oak leaves falling to the ground all around their property - they said it looked like a dark cloud steadily dropping down. The Amish, contrary to common belief, are "allowed" to use chainsaws - a fact I was unaware of. Also, they can ride in vehicles if someone else drives - practical measures I suppose. We stayed at a First Baptist church, which was also a hoot. This particular Baptist Church had a "Judgement House". From what I could gather from the pastor - a loquacious, exuberant, impulsive man (no surprise)- there were around 7 different rooms the ticket-payers would be escorted to portraying life and death. There is supposed would be a disaster of some sort dramatized and then some of the people would go to a room called "Hell" and others would go to a room called "Heaven" depending on the deeds of each involved. And Yes!!! Hell had pitchforks, they pumped in sulphur and their would be a horned, red devil. Classic. It opens Oct. 5th and takes 70-100 volunteers to run. I hope I can go.
Red Cross would drive around handing out food during lunch and dinner time - but the food the community provided was 10 times better so we would try to avoid them and head to the Catholic church where the food was stationed. We all ate extremely well. Fried chicken, Muscacholi, beef stew, salads, chili, and a tables and tables of desserts. Yum. Last nite it was one of the Americorps staff's birthdays - it was pirate themed and the bar we went to had a few "washer" courts - a game where you throw a washer into a box 30 feet away - good fun. 12 of us will head back to crosstown Monday and they might rotate us in and out as needed. I am doing well and really enjoyed this last week. Oh by the way, I think all of Crosstown had a Playboy subscription from the 70's as I can tell from the debris lying hither and yon.

Hope you are all well, peace and love, Kevin