Victims still recovering from tornado devastation

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Clean-up work continues in Mobile along the six-mile path where an EF-2 tornado struck Christmas Day.

Who can forget the image of a massive funnel shaped storm cutting through Midtown Mobile, or the surveillance footage from a Government Street pharmacy which showed customers fleeing for cover.

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The videos were shot without sound, but images of the storm's silent fury speaks volume. January 27, just over a month later, the area is in a state of recovery.

The scars linger.

On Carlen Street, six-foot piles of debris that once lined the street have diminished.

“Clean-up efforts started the very next day,” said Amber Parker.

Parker and her fiancée were out of town when the EF-2 clobbered Carlen Street and damaged their brick home.

She said the clean-up has been slow, but steady.

“Were getting there is my sense of recovery you know there's roofs being worked on everyday, every morning you wake up there's hammer and nails, there something going on -- you're waking up to some type of construction noise,” said Parker.

Fortunately, the legacy of the Christmas Day tornado will be the property damage it caused and not any lives it could have taken.

Historic Murphy High School in Midtown was stricken by damage to its auditorium , where part of the roof was on the ground. Portable classrooms were completely destroyed, and a scoreboard on the school's practice field was thrown into a nearby resident's yard.

Other houses on nearby Carlen Street appear to be kept in a state of disrepair, just as they looked after the storm passed.

A vital part of the rebuilding and clean-up following the storm was neighbor helping neighbor.

For some that effort continues.

“I've been out here dragging branches and stuff and all that you see from here, I've pulled all this out in the past two weeks,” said Florence Crawford of Mobile.

Crawford has done all that work on property that doesn't even belong to her, she's helping a neighbor who works long hours and hasn't been able to clean it himself.

“Well it's all about making our neighborhood look better and helping your neighbor,” said Crawford.