Annihilation seemed to be the intention of three deadly tornadoes that killed more than 50 people as they ripped through the small adjoining towns of Phil Campbell and Hackleburg on April 27. And while only slightly missing their goal of total destruction, the storms came about as close as anyone there ever wants to be.
“Fifty percent of our population is displaced,” Tim Haney, pastor of First Baptist Church, Phil Campbell, said of the nearly 1,100 people in the town.
“We have no power, no water and some people lost everything,” he said, noting the death toll continued to rise and several people were still missing at press time.
Both towns were literally flattened in parts.
It was as if a giant weed eater cleared a path nearly a mile wide in Phil Campbell and more than three miles wide in Hackleburg, Haney said.
Steve Lawrence, pastor of First Baptist Church, Hackleburg said, “There is hardly anything left in those three miles. The school is leveled, the stores, the Wrangler plant and all the houses are gone.”
While some areas were wiped clean as if nothing ever sat there, other areas contain the splintered remnants of homes, vehicles, businesses, etc.
And with all telephone lines down, communication became a serious issue. The towns seemed cut off from the outside world. News of loved ones flowed through the communities by word of mouth and sometimes took days to make it to the people fretting the most.
Still, in both towns, it was the church that became the central point of communication and the place people gathered throughout the days following the destruction.
First, Phil Campbell, suffered only minor structural damage to its main building and will likely have to rebuild its multipurpose building, but Mountain View Baptist Church, Phil Campbell, didn’t fare as well.
“The church is gone, Bro. Sammy. The church is gone.”
Those were the first words Sammy Taylor, pastor of Mountain View Baptist, heard just seconds after emerging from a storm shelter within sight of the church.
“The building is a total loss,” he said. “But the church is not the building. The church is the people. We’ll get through this.”
The Mountain View Baptist family lost two church members in the storms, an adult lady and a 9-year-old boy. First, Phil Campbell, lost two adult ladies.
No deaths were reported out of the First, Hackleburg, membership. Information from Emmanuel Baptist Church, Hackleburg, was not available at press time.
And while First, Hackleburg, received only minor damage. Emmanuel Baptist was destroyed. The church’s pastor, Gene Thomas, was hospitalized.
Lawrence said his city was in the same shape as Phil Campbell.
“At least 50 percent, if not more, of our people are displaced,” he said of the more than 1,200 people in the town.
And so he’s doing the only thing he knows to do — help.
He has organized First, Hackleburg, as a resource site for the community as well as a drop-off and distribution center for clothing and nonperishable items. Meals are being served in the church’s multipurpose center.
First, Phil Campbell, has a similar set up.
Amy Rollins, a member of First, Phil Campbell, was the first to arrive at the church after the storms rolled through the area. Joining the group already there taking shelter from the storms, Rollins and the others got to work.
“I started setting up for donations for people in need right away,” said Rollins, whose 6-year-old son Grant works alongside her. “We don’t really know what to do, but it makes you feel better to help.”
In both towns, donations and assistance are pouring in from individuals, churches and businesses across the state.
But water, food and clothes are not all those in need will receive. Haney plans to put a New Testament in their hands as well.
“We are planning to meet their physical needs and their spiritual needs,” he said, noting the Sunday service would take place as normal.
“We are out advertising we will be here Sunday,” Haney said April 29, noting an average Sunday attendance is 110–120.
“You might have a few more this Sunday,” a town resident picking up supplies from the church whispered in Haney’s ear as he walked by.
“Amen, brother,” Haney said. “I’ve been waiting for you to join us.”
At Mountain View Baptist, the May 1 service was scheduled to take place outside next to the demolished sanctuary as a time to “be together, pray together and love on each other,” Taylor said.
Plans after that as well as plans for Emmanual Baptist were uncertain at press time.
The sadness, shock and numbness among residents in Phil Campbell and Hackleburg stilled the air for any who witnessed the surreal atmosphere surrounding the two towns.
“We are shell shocked,” Rollins noted. And the dazed, robotic movements of those sifting through piles and piles of debris proved her point.
Taylor said the reality of what has happened has not truly sunk in yet. His wife, Judy, said, “I cry a lot.”
And she’s not alone. Few people could speak of the horrific event days later without wiping away tears.
The smell of blood in the air still haunts Haney, and the heaviness of all that has happened and all that is to come shows in the weariness of the pastors’ faces.
“This is so massive,” Haney said. “In the matter of four minutes life as we know it changed.”
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