An American flag recovered from the rubble of the community of Holt in Tuscaloosa, Ala. flies at what used to be Lucky Dollar convenience store and gas station at the corner of Crescent Ridge Road Northeast and First Street East. First Street East, seen in the photo lined with cars, tents and people, used to be a heavily wooded community. No trees remain after the tornadoes that ripped through Tuscaloosa on April 27th and damage extends for miles as no structures were left standing.
C.J.'s bus cruises along Interstate 65 in Tennessee on it's way to Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Saturday, April 30, 2011 in an effort to provide relief to the children of the disaster area. C.J.'s Bus was founded a year after Kathryn Martin lost her 2-year old son in a tornado that killed 25 people in Evansville, ind. on November 6, 2011. Martin and her husband John began raising funds and founded the bus to travel to hard hit disaster areas in order to provide a safe haven for children while their parents dealt with the harsh realities to putting their lives back together.
David Gibbs, right, from Rodeo's Garage in Faulkville, Ala. meets Kathryn Martin, her husband John, right, and the bus' driver Matt Nobel, to transport the radiator from C.J.'s to a shop in Mayfield, Ala. to be repaired. The crew was just 80 miles from Tuscaloosa when storm debris on Interstate 65 kicked up into the bus' radiator making the bus undriveable. The group spent four hours on the side of the road before Gibbs arrived. Gibbs assured the group it would take an hour to travel each way to the shop and probably an hour to repair the radiator, giving them hope they'd be back on the road by 10:30pm, and hopefully in Tuscaloosa by midnight.
After multiple failed attempts to repair their radiator, the volunteers of C.J.'s Bus were forced to call a tow truck to bring them the remaining 80 miles to Bowers Park in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The group did not arrive until after 8 o'clock in the morning. After 24 straight hours on the road, no sleep and little to eat, John Martin guides C.J.'s Bus into a grassy field at Bowers Park where the bus will serve the community.
Matt Noble and John Martin position a bookshelf as the volunteers begin transitioning C.J.'s Bus from it's travel phase to it's operational set-up shortly after arriving at Bowers Park in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Matt and Jenn Noble walk down 10th Street East toward Kicker Road East in Alberta City, a community of Tuscaloosa, Ala on May 2, 2011. The mangled and twisted piles of steel they walk toward are the remnants of a warehouse that sat near the intersection before an EF4 tornado ripped through the city on April 27th.
Latia Cobbs prays to Jesus Christ, thanking him for keeping her and her four sons safe during the devastating tornadoes on April 27th, as clouds break to reveal the sunset over the remains of her home in Alberta City, a community of Tuscaloosa, Ala. An EF4 tornado destroyed Cobbs' home and everything she owned. One of the first things she and her neighbor, Susie Palmer, did upon returning to recover salvageable belongings was construct a cross from the remains of Cobbs' home. A piece of wood next to the remnants of Cobbs' car in the background reads John 3:16, a reference to the Biblical text, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, and that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.""We were just holding on and my son was screaming," Cobbs said. "We just held on and I just started praising God. My other son was doing it too and he just all of the sudden stood up on his knees and that's when the wind got that grasp to be able to suck him out of there. He was saying, 'you can't have my family!' and then all of the sudden we saw him just flip on out backwards out of the hole."Cobbs and her children returned frequently to the remnants of their home to salvage what they could and protect their belongings from looters. That unfortunately reality is what C.J.'s Bus aims to help shelter children of disasters from. Many families in Alberta City refused to leave their homes for shelters, prompting C.J.'s Bus to relocate to the hard hit area, something they had avoided in years of disaster relief before.
Hundreds of cots fill one of two gymnasiums at the Belk Activities Center at Bowers Park in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The recreation center is now the home to over 250 people who lost everything in the April 27th tornadoes that ravaged Tuscaloosa, Ala. This is room that many of the children at C.J.'s Bus return to every night when the bus closes it's doors. Many residents complain it's impossible to get any rest in the building and little room exists for children to play.
Kathryn Martin, Executive Director and Founder of C.J.'s Bus, plays with Jadeona Davis, 4, in the bus on Sunday, May 1, 2011. Martin's two-year-old son C.J. was killed in the devastating tornadoes that struck the Evansville area in November 2005. Afterward, Martin went back to school to get her degree in human services with a special focus in child advocacy and founded C.J.'s Bus in honor of her late son.
Tara Greenlee managed a large group of kids as they color and play games inside C.J.'s Bus on May 1, 2011. Over 60 children came to the bus on Sunday and taxed the group of 10 volunteers who had gotten no sleep the night before during their radiator struggles.
Jameca Simmons, left, and Ja'Dayazia Davis, right, blow bubbles in the field around C.J.'s Bus at Bowers Park in Tuscaloosa, Ala on Sunday, May 1, 2011. A line of dozens of people who now call the Belk Activity Center at Bowers Park (a Red Cross shelter) their home, line up up and wait for pizzas being given away by Papa Johns.
Jay'Quan Bates, 4, takes a nap on the floor of C.J.'s Bus on a yellow dinosaur donated to the bus by a local Mercedes Benz representative. Bates and his three siblings find it hard to get any rest in the crowded Belk Activity Center Red Cross shelter they now live in and all three took hours long naps at C.J.'s Bus on Tuesday, May 3, 2011.
