TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — When tornadoes swept through the Deep South last week, Montgomery County native Owen Gregg saw the trail of destruction up close.
Gregg, a 2020 graduate of North Montgomery High School, and nearly 40 co-workers from the Nucor Technical Academy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama teamed up to help clear debris near one of the heavily-damaged cities.
As many as 10 tornadoes struck Alabama and Georgia on Thursday, killing at least five people. In Alabama alone, the Red Cross initially estimated nearly 400 homes sustained major damage or were destroyed, WBRC-TV in Birmingham reported.
Gregg, his roommates and neighbors headed for Nucor’s storm shelter as a tornado warning was issued for Tuscaloosa, but the threat was called off as they took cover.
About 30 miles away near Centreville, a city of less than 3,000 people in the state’s midsection, fallen trees had crushed houses and mobile homes. Semi-trucks were overturned by strong winds.
The young volunteers reached an area outside the tornado’s path that had significant wind damage. They helped local firefighters and families remove trees from homes.
“We were cutting up logs for them and everything,” Gregg said.
The Nucor students made up the majority of volunteers, according to first responders. Several local Nucor employees live in the affected area.
The students’ response showed the character of the academy’s participants, said Nucor supervisor Lane Tyner.
“Some of them have never experienced a tornado before or seen the devastation a tornado could cause, but yet they were willing to go out and volunteer to help those who needed it,” Tyner said.
