“How did you find us?” asked Tommy. “It feels like everyone has forgotten about us.”
The Salvation Army had pulled over at his farm in Lenox, Alabama, after traveling eight miles along a dirt road that had been very recently cleared of storm debris. Hurricane Isaias had uprooted trees that had stood for decades. Others lay across power lines.
“My neighbor’s roof is in my yard,” Tommy said. “They lost everything.”
His family had weathered the storm, but its severity caught them off guard. His son-in-law recalled the front door of his home buckling under the force of the wind. “I don’t scare easily, and I was scared,” he said.
Now, Tommy was confronting what came next. “I can’t believe I’m going to have to rebuild everything I’ve worked so hard to build.”
Still, he was grateful to God that his family was safe. “They are my whole world, right there,” he said, pointing to his family.
Across Lenox, a small rural community in Conecuh County, families are gathering what remains of their possessions. Many said they don’t know where to start.
Small rural communities can be among the hardest to reach after a storm and the last to have power restored. In Lenox, residents said they could be without electricity for weeks, leaving families who depend on wells unable to pump water into their homes.
The Salvation Army maintains a fleet of hundreds of specialized vehicles across the country ready to respond, from large field kitchens that prepare thousands of meals to mobile canteens that serve neighborhoods. Smaller Rapid Response Units — used to reach Lenox — help teams bring food, water, and supplies closer to neighbors in harder-to-reach areas.
Neighbors texted friends and family and posted on the community Facebook page that The Salvation Army had come to help. Soon, people arrived in trucks, cars, side-by-sides, on four-wheelers, and even on foot. And even with so much to face themselves, neighbors were looking out for one another, gathering extra food and supplies for elderly friends and those who were homebound or too sick to make the trip.
Throughout the day, The Salvation Army distributed clean-up supplies, almost 400 shelf stable meals, more than 240 drinks, and over 600 snacks, staying until the last of everthing on the truck was emptied into the hands of those who needed them.
There was still so much ahead. But for that day, families had something to eat, water to drink, and one less worry to carry.
As neighbors gathered their supplies, they asked, “Will you be here tomorrow?”
“Yes, we will.”
Lenox is not forgotten.
