Tom Militano
KNIFE MAKER
Robert, we've had friends in Germany checking on us and calls from old friends all over the country too.
Smoke and prayes for our friends and fellow knifemakers down south.
- Thread starter Fred Rowe
- Start date
J S Machine
Well-Known Member
For those of you who don't know, I work with the fire service.
Devastation in this area is simply indescribable. Tuscaloosa has a very bad situation of their own, as well as many other counties in AL. We are Elmore county if you have heard that on the news. We have 6 confirmed dead, and hopefully no more show up. The particular tornado that hit us traveled from our county to Tallapoosa county. It was one of the few EF-4's confirmed by the national weather service.
I was out until about 2am the night of the April 27th dealing with this particular mobile home park. Saw the bodies of the 4 confirmed dead, and treated about 10+ victims who were injured. Found out the next day that one of the ladies I was with that night didn't make it. Her two children are in Children's hospital in Birmingham. One of them was a small little boy with a skull fracture, and Thankfully monday night (May 9th) I heard he is doing better.
I got a chance to meet the AL Lt. Governor, and she just wanted to thank us for what we were doing and shake hands with a few of us. Very nice lady; a suprise to see her.
There is stuff everywhere. Insulation, sheetrock, personal items, belongings, cars, trees.
We have trees twisted off, trees with root beds 20' in dia laying in places they shouldn't be..The trees just look erie. Crazy to see them bent over.
This thing left a Path a mile wide in some places, and at least a half mile most of the way through. There is about a 10 mile stretch of destruction where we have been. I'm sure it goes further in both directions. I have never seen anything like this in my life. What kind of storm has that kind of force to just touch down and litterally mow everything in it's path?
We had the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and several faith based community organizations coming in to help with the cleanup. The Salvation army brought food and hot coffee. One of my neighbors is a air National Guard drill instructor, and he got us 110 troops on Saturday April 30th, to help with man power. FEMA has since set up a temporary station in one of the buildings down town, and is helping with recovery. The outpouring of help from the community is just unbelievable. Folks came out of the wood work to donate food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and help with cleanup.
I got sufficiently sunburned. I ran five tanks of fuel through my saw in the following days helping with the cutting an clearing trees.
I took these pictures on my breaks throughout the following few days. Please see below
What is left of a barn and a motorhome flipped upside down..see wheels
Trees and debris
Debris and part of a still standing house
Damage - note water tower in picture which is still standing
General destruction
More debris - house in the background behind the white truck 70% gone
Another closer pic
Truck that was in a small metal building, truck pushed forward, metal building on ground in front of the truck
One of the churches that was destroyed - note the roof laying to the right
A fire station completely gone - note the slab - the trucks were still there, but were moved before I took this picture. It actually pulled the anchor bolts out of the slab and left big holes
Cemetery - graves actually sucked up in the rear and exposed some corpses
Another church - one wall left standing
More debris
Shredded trees
This is the tongue of a house trailer and the floor section on top of a car. These people have no idea where it came from
Trampoline on a utility pole
What's left of a house trailer frame - note the trees
Unbelieveable
More destruction
Trees
Someone put this on their mailbox right down the road
I have two friends who are also firefighters in North AL. One works for birmingham fire, and the other is a Sgt. at Tuscaloosa Fire. It is now May 12th, and I still have not heard form James, the Tuscaloosa guy. He has been very busy with searches and rescue, and his wife has only seen him very little. I have talked to her a few times.
Joseph, the Birmingham firefighter said he has never seen anything like it either. Alot of damage near them in the Pratt city area of Birmingham.
Satellite images of the destruction paths:
through tuscaloosa:
western part of jefferson county, just outside birmingham:
It has been something that truly changed my attitude towards the relevance of severe weather. I can honestly admit that next time there is a warning, my tail will be in the bathtub.
Please countinue to pray for these people because many lives were lost and many people were devastated in a natural disaster we never expected.
On a good note, I was lucky to be the one carrying The Curtiss Nano passaround at the time this happened. Happy to say that knife performed flawlessly for many of the operations I used it for during relief efforts. A thumbs up to The Curtiss Knife folks for such a good example of a well built tool
Devastation in this area is simply indescribable. Tuscaloosa has a very bad situation of their own, as well as many other counties in AL. We are Elmore county if you have heard that on the news. We have 6 confirmed dead, and hopefully no more show up. The particular tornado that hit us traveled from our county to Tallapoosa county. It was one of the few EF-4's confirmed by the national weather service.
I was out until about 2am the night of the April 27th dealing with this particular mobile home park. Saw the bodies of the 4 confirmed dead, and treated about 10+ victims who were injured. Found out the next day that one of the ladies I was with that night didn't make it. Her two children are in Children's hospital in Birmingham. One of them was a small little boy with a skull fracture, and Thankfully monday night (May 9th) I heard he is doing better.
I got a chance to meet the AL Lt. Governor, and she just wanted to thank us for what we were doing and shake hands with a few of us. Very nice lady; a suprise to see her.
There is stuff everywhere. Insulation, sheetrock, personal items, belongings, cars, trees.
We have trees twisted off, trees with root beds 20' in dia laying in places they shouldn't be..The trees just look erie. Crazy to see them bent over.
This thing left a Path a mile wide in some places, and at least a half mile most of the way through. There is about a 10 mile stretch of destruction where we have been. I'm sure it goes further in both directions. I have never seen anything like this in my life. What kind of storm has that kind of force to just touch down and litterally mow everything in it's path?
We had the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and several faith based community organizations coming in to help with the cleanup. The Salvation army brought food and hot coffee. One of my neighbors is a air National Guard drill instructor, and he got us 110 troops on Saturday April 30th, to help with man power. FEMA has since set up a temporary station in one of the buildings down town, and is helping with recovery. The outpouring of help from the community is just unbelievable. Folks came out of the wood work to donate food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and help with cleanup.
I got sufficiently sunburned. I ran five tanks of fuel through my saw in the following days helping with the cutting an clearing trees.
I took these pictures on my breaks throughout the following few days. Please see below
What is left of a barn and a motorhome flipped upside down..see wheels
Trees and debris
Debris and part of a still standing house
Damage - note water tower in picture which is still standing
General destruction
More debris - house in the background behind the white truck 70% gone
Another closer pic
Truck that was in a small metal building, truck pushed forward, metal building on ground in front of the truck
One of the churches that was destroyed - note the roof laying to the right
A fire station completely gone - note the slab - the trucks were still there, but were moved before I took this picture. It actually pulled the anchor bolts out of the slab and left big holes
Cemetery - graves actually sucked up in the rear and exposed some corpses
Another church - one wall left standing
More debris
Shredded trees
This is the tongue of a house trailer and the floor section on top of a car. These people have no idea where it came from
Trampoline on a utility pole
What's left of a house trailer frame - note the trees
Unbelieveable
More destruction
Trees
Someone put this on their mailbox right down the road
I have two friends who are also firefighters in North AL. One works for birmingham fire, and the other is a Sgt. at Tuscaloosa Fire. It is now May 12th, and I still have not heard form James, the Tuscaloosa guy. He has been very busy with searches and rescue, and his wife has only seen him very little. I have talked to her a few times.
Joseph, the Birmingham firefighter said he has never seen anything like it either. Alot of damage near them in the Pratt city area of Birmingham.
Satellite images of the destruction paths:
through tuscaloosa:
western part of jefferson county, just outside birmingham:
It has been something that truly changed my attitude towards the relevance of severe weather. I can honestly admit that next time there is a warning, my tail will be in the bathtub.
Please countinue to pray for these people because many lives were lost and many people were devastated in a natural disaster we never expected.
On a good note, I was lucky to be the one carrying The Curtiss Nano passaround at the time this happened. Happy to say that knife performed flawlessly for many of the operations I used it for during relief efforts. A thumbs up to The Curtiss Knife folks for such a good example of a well built tool
Last edited:
McClellan Made Blades
Well-Known Member
John,
It's great to hear from you and know your OK, and THANK YOU for being out there helping! We have a friend in Eclectic, they lost their home, but fortunatley nothing else, they were held up in the bathroom, once the "train" was gone, they opend the bathroom door to see the OUTSIDE! Almost all the house was ripped away EXCEPT the BATHROOM! I've got some pics I'm going to send you PM, shots taken from a helicopter the next day, they are of Tuscaloosa, and it is amazing to see the destruction! Just like your satellite image you can see the path it took, leaving behind broken homes, businesses and lives. An extremely sad day in the history of Alabama!
BTW, that Curtiss Knife your talking about, was made by David Curtis of Great Lakes Water Jet, he's a 1 man shop, he IS the folks at Curtiss Knives!
Do you know if John Wayne Taylor got hit? He lives over that way, but I don't know where.
Great hearing from you, give me a call when you get some time, Rex
It's great to hear from you and know your OK, and THANK YOU for being out there helping! We have a friend in Eclectic, they lost their home, but fortunatley nothing else, they were held up in the bathroom, once the "train" was gone, they opend the bathroom door to see the OUTSIDE! Almost all the house was ripped away EXCEPT the BATHROOM! I've got some pics I'm going to send you PM, shots taken from a helicopter the next day, they are of Tuscaloosa, and it is amazing to see the destruction! Just like your satellite image you can see the path it took, leaving behind broken homes, businesses and lives. An extremely sad day in the history of Alabama!
BTW, that Curtiss Knife your talking about, was made by David Curtis of Great Lakes Water Jet, he's a 1 man shop, he IS the folks at Curtiss Knives!
Do you know if John Wayne Taylor got hit? He lives over that way, but I don't know where.
Great hearing from you, give me a call when you get some time, Rex
J S Machine
Well-Known Member
Good to hear from you Rex. Happy to hear you made it through your heart escapade.
Who were your friends in the bathroom? I have met many in the cleanup efforts.
Can't say that I recognize the John Wayne Taylor name. Where does he live? I know just about the entire area of destruction. If you give me a street name, or even better an address, I might be able to tell you.
Who were your friends in the bathroom? I have met many in the cleanup efforts.
Can't say that I recognize the John Wayne Taylor name. Where does he live? I know just about the entire area of destruction. If you give me a street name, or even better an address, I might be able to tell you.
McClellan Made Blades
Well-Known Member
The family that lost their house was Joe & Michelle Pickette, he owns a HVAC company, Reliable Heating and Air, they live in Eclectic, wonderful people, and my wifes best friend. John Wayne is known all over the the Blacksmithing world, he makes a wonderful Tire Hammer, which is a basically a power hammer, except it's not quite as expensive, and uses off the shelf and scrapyard parts. Look it up on You Tube they are pretty dang awesome! I'm going to place my order here shortly for mine, I'm getting too old and more so, broke down to keep hand hammering, I don't want to give up forging and I REALLY want to make Damascus and Mocume! If for nothing more than myself. I don't know where John Wayne lives, I think he might be on hwy 9 headed toward Alex City maybe. But I really don't know for sure. Give me a month or so and come on back, we'll see if we can't make some Damascus!!! I'm still not quite recoverd, when I get home I might last an hour or so in the shop, but I'll keep plugging at it until I get it done, I get tired so easy and quick it's pathetic! But I'm still determined to get it back up and going, the NEW TIRE HAMMER is great incentive!!! But it's going to be a while before I get it, once I give him the word he'll begin building it, I just need to call him. So do keep in touch, Rex
Fred Rowe
Well-Known Member
I got a good look at the tire hammers at a Jim Batson gathering in North Carolina. I really like the way they are put together. No lack of power in the one I saw.
Sounds like you are ready for that hammer upgrade. Enjoy it to the fullest.
Best of luck to you, Fred
McClellan Made Blades
Well-Known Member
Thanks Fred!
It has been a tough decision, but with the availability of Little Giants or any power hammers around here being what they are AND where they are, which is never very close to me in Alabama, the cost is too much of a range to even attempt to figure out. New power hammers, while extremely nice and very effective, average about 5K+shipping, and some require a high powered air compressor.
The guy that's building mine is in the next county, has given me an approximate due date, and most important of all a definite price. Well, maybe not the most important, the most important part is the quality of the machine once I get it and put into service, I do know his reputation for building Tire Hammers is superb! He is the guy that built (I think) a mini-tire hammer Clay Spencer, as a thank you from The Alabama Forge Council, I think that's right, I could have some of the details mixed up, but I think that is correct. He has built a lot of them, and you get a lot for $2500, the hammer weight is 50 pounds, 1 set of combo dies, and I think the motor is 1 1/2 hp, I'm going over there this weekend and taking some of my steel, to try it out. Either today or tomorrow, really can't wait, so now I need to try to get out to the shop and get things out there back in order, it is driving me crazy every time I step in the shop. Thanks, Rex