ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, SportsVolunteers give up holidays to help clean up tornado damage

An EF 3 tornado tore through Jefferson County one month ago. But instead of rebuilding, survivors are still battling feet of debris. That's why volunteers gave up their holiday to help.

Pratt City, a city devastated by the April 27th tornadoes, was supposed to be the destination for the Mennonite Disaster Service from Pennsylvania. 

"The jobs for MDS in Pratt City are almost nil. We are waiting for moneys. We are waiting on the government," said Jay Finkbiner, a MDS volunteer.

That's when Finkbiner and other volunteers got caught in the January tornado.

"We heard the sirens at three o'clock in the morning, got out of our RV and went into our shelter," he said.

Instead of rebuilding, Finkbiner and other senior volunteers are spending their retirement time removing debris in Center Point alongside spring break volunteers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

"It's really appalling and eye opening. It's almost surreal when you see walls of concrete slabs hanging,"said Nicole Lee, a college student. "It's hard to believe but once you are all in it, it's like something needs to be done and we need to help these people."

Lee is learning how far teamwork can go and about herself.

"I learned I can lift some pretty heavy logs," she said.

Just down the street in Paradise Valley, 13 year old Parker Sandifer is also giving his President's Day holiday.

"It's really bad. I'm not an adult but decided I could help in some way," said Sandifer.

Any of the volunteers, especially ones from Excell Communications who've been out twice, will say every extra hand helps.

"Some of it's been cleaned up, but I'm sure with the city being bombarded with where to put it, it's a slow process," said Nicole Nighman of Excell Communications.

The City of Center Point hopes to speed that process up. Monday night, the city council will vote on hiring a company to remove the debris.