Twisters knock wind out of LBM businesses

ll rfa.ssrve ToRNADoES that devastatIYled homes and businesses across the Midwest and South also damaged thousands of acres of timberlands and several LBM businesses.

In Joplin, Mo., Home Depot will rebuild a store destroyed by a May 22 tornado, which also killed one of the store's managers and six others who were seeking shelter in the store.

"It is our intention in the event of a disaster to be the last business to close, and to be the first to open afterwards," said spokesperson Stephen Holmes.

Dean Wells, 59, managed the store's electrical department. Before the storm hit, employees and customers were led to safety at the back of the store, but he returned to the front to let desperate people from the store's parking lot enter.

"He put himself in a very dangerous place to allow other people to survive the storm," said branch manager Steve Cope.

One week after the storm, customers could buy urgently needed supplies in the store's old parking lot. A few weeks later, a 30,000-sq. ft. temporary store opened at the site.

"We're trying to let people know we're not just a retail store to take their money," said Cope. "It's been very tough, especially to be onsite and look at it every day."

Local LBM businesses that were lucky enough to escape damage donated time and equipment to the recovery efforts. Mid-Am Building Supply, a distributor based in nearby Moberly, Mo., delivered donated relief supplies in one of its trucks. Moberly Lumber donated a forklift for the day, to assist in loading trucks with pallets of water, food, diapers, hygiene products, and other much-needed supplies.

Although the tornado that devastat- ed Joplin missed TAMKO Building Products' headquarters there, the company's shingle plant in Tuscaloosa, Al., didn't fare so well.

The April 27 twister damaged large portions of the plant, including a warehouse, raw material storage areas, and portions of the production buildings, loading docks, and manufacturing offices. Some of the plant's product displays and literature were found 45 miles away. However, no employees were seriously injured.

Less than a month later, the plant was once again producing laminated asphalt shingles, as well as commercial roll-roofing products, strip shingles, and saturated felt.

"It's a testament to the quality of our employees and the people of Tuscaloosa that this facility could be producing shingles only a month after it was hit by one of the most devastating tomadoes in this country's history," said president and c.e.o. David Humphreys.

The firm also pledged $l million to the local chapter of the American Red

Cross. "Having just rebuilt our Tuscaloosa plant, we know the impact of these storms on our own employees and others," said Humphreys.

At the Lowe's in Sanford. N.C.. employees were hailed as heroes for moving customers to safety before an April 16 twister completely destroyed the front of the store. Even though it was a busy Saturday, no one was hurt.

"Someone was looking out for us," said employee Mandy Vanderroest. "We are so blessed."

Lowe's crews lost no time cleaning up wreckage at the site and starting construction on a new store-after the concrete slab was removed and replaced. Until it opens this fall, Vanderroest and her colleagues will be working in other Lowe's in the area.

"Everyday I hear, 'When are you coming back? When are you going to rebuild?"' said store manager Mike Hollowell. "That feels real good when you hear those things, because you never know how much you mean to a community, or how much the community means to you, until it's gone.'