Volunteers come together to help with tornado recovery efforts in Pembroke
BRYAN COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - A new cleanup crew is making a pit stop in Pembroke to help tornado recovery efforts.
The team of volunteers better known as God’s Pit Crew drove tractor trailers from Virginia to assist with tree removal and debris pick up.
“We got a lot of horsepower and a lot of cool toys,” Chris Chiles, Immediate Disaster Response Coordinator, God’s Pit Crew said.
Volunteers with God’s Pit Crew say tractor trailers that are filled with 40 chainsaws, multiple wheelbarrows, and shovels are designed to help remove debris off of property overwhelmed with storm damage so that county officials can more easily continue the cleanup process.
“We have two excavators, two skid steers and an excavator, a 72-foot man lift, two F-450s, two F-3, three F-350′s, and two road tractors,” Chiles said.
Chris Chiles helps oversee disaster response across the country for the group.
He says he and his crew have experience in tornado cleanup but each situation has its own challenges.
“A tornado is just devastating. It doesn’t matter where it is or what part of the country. When a tornado hits, especially whoever it hits, seeing the families who lost everything, it’s tough to see. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it,” Chiles said.
Amid the devastation come new signs of progress.
The Red Cross says it will be ending their overnight shelter in the area as those affected get assistance.
“Most people have had other resources, other places to stay, family, hotel funds, insurance, whatever. So, we haven’t been as stressed focusing on that sheltering aspect which has been very fortunate,” Kelsey Vaneyl-Godin, Disaster Program Manager for Coastal Georgia, American Red Cross said.
Red Cross officials say they’ll focus on individual claims as more recovery funds become available.
“There are so many organizations just dying to help you. And that’s just been an amazing feat,” Vaneyl-Godin said.
But for Chiles and his crew he says helping people in need is what makes the hard work ahead worth it.
“It’s just hope. To see somebody that has no idea, I went and met with a family today. Their home’s destroyed. It has to be torn down. They didn’t know how they were going to clean all that up. They got 30 acres with trees down everywhere. Just the cost, what it would cost them to pay somebody to do that, and we do it for free,” Chiles said.
A community coming together for what officials say will be a year’s long rebuilding process.
Copyright 2022 WTOC. All rights reserved.
