Cape workers aid in clearing tornado debris

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- The Cape Girardeau public works department sent a 17-person crew to Caruthersville on Saturday to help with the cleanup effort. Saturday was the first day in what will be at least a weeklong effort. Local crews will take turns doing 10-hour shifts cleaning debris from the devastated region.

Public works director Tim Gramling said a lot of help is needed.

"You can't describe it. Even the pictures don't do it justice," he said. "Even after six hours down there, my guys were still coming up to me and saying, 'Do you believe this?' It's just total destruction."

An F3 tornado tore through Pemiscot County a week ago, damaging many homes in the town of 6,500 people.

The call for assistance was made at 9 a.m. Friday. By 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the crew was on its way hauling five dump trucks, two backhoes, an excavator and a skid loader for the project.

Gramling said workers from his department jumped at the opportunity to help out. "The day I put word out in the department that we needed help I got just about 30 responses of guys who wanted to go," he said. "Just about all of them had the weekend off, but they were willing to sacrifice time with their families."

This is still the first phase of cleanup, where crews try to remove debris from the streets. Residents were encouraged to push debris from their yards toward the streets where the cleanup crews could collect it.

Once this phase is done, demolition of condemned buildings and reconstruction of salvageable ones can commence.

It's going to be a slow process.

"I hoped after today, I'd have a better idea of how long this would take, but now I couldn't even guess," Gramling said. "There's just so much to do. I'd say cleanup will be going on probably for several months."

Gramling said an assessment team was going door to door placing red, yellow or green ribbons on structures, with green representing a livable house. In the southern area of the city where the Cape Girardeau team was operating, there was a lot of red, some yellow and not much green.

The public works department will rotate crews of between 14 and 17 workers all this week and reassess the need after that point. Workers from the sewer, water, street, and stormwater divisions are all participating.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245