A Hurricane Harvey Remnant

Last week CFC co-founder Boyd Martin received a call for help from a homeowner in Docena, Alabama who had been impacted by Tropical Storm Harvey - the residual winds of Hurricane Harvey - that came through Birmingham in late August / early September.  Upon inspection, he concluded that it was a job that fell within our team capabilities and scope of service, but one that would require some careful planning.  There was no way the skid steer would be able to assist in the limited space where they would be working; and the site was even further compromised by the presence of a neighboring house and a chain-link fence nearby.

The upper story of this tree was brought down during the storm.  Others before us cleared away the canopy debris that fell.  Our assignment was to remove the remaining 20' tall "totem" and move the pieces into which we cut it to the fence line where the city agreed to then pick them up and haul away.

Boyd felt a small team could best accomplish the task and elected to call a few of the CFC regulars to field a team of just three cutters and one safety officer.  The team of four - consisting of Boyd, Buddy Williams, Tim Smith and Henry Averyt - convened at the job site at 8 am on Friday morning, November 17.  They worked diligently, sacrificing several chainsaw chains as they encountered nails, spikes and chain links that had become embedded in the tree over its many years of growth.  They were eventually able to bring down the tree to a level about three feet off the ground where the diameter of the tree was measured at 43-1/2"!

This photo of Buddy in front of the tree along the fence line may give you some perspective of the size of this matchstick!  Also note the device attached to Buddy's trailer hitch.  He calls it "Abelette," a portable winch that worked to help guide the tree down right where they wanted it to fall before they cut it up in movable-sized pieces.

The tree was bucked into sections which were then laid against the chain link fence for the city to remove.  Job done and job site departed - all by 12:00 noon. Our disaster response ministry has been blessed by a quiet storm season thus far but we remain prepared and at the ready to serve when needed.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

In His Service, Bob Bob Thompson Cutters for Christ Disaster Response Ministry Deployment/Team Coordinator _________________________________________________________