Lee County community rebuilding homes for tornado victims in Beauregard

LEE COUNTY, AL (WTVM) - News Leader 9 has joined forces with several organizations to raise money to help build homes for those who lost everything in the Beauregard community of Lee County.

On Monday, the ongoing efforts continued as volunteers and organizations worked to get things back to normal. Many of those affected in those storms said it’s been a long road to recovery.

“To experience everything that we have experienced, you may remember we lost six family members and nine family members lost their households,” said Trevis Hawkins.

"I lost my first cousins and I grew up with them and knew them most of my life. They’re going to be missed,” explained Napoleon Darby.

Darby and his cousin Hawkins lost members of their family in the storm. Darby is one of many who lost his home. Now with the help of volunteers at the Fuller Center for housing, the East Alabama Medical Center, and a number of other organizations, he along with others will soon have a new home.

“Sometimes I can’t find the words to express how grateful I am for them to do all of this,” said Darby.

“It is a blessing to these families to be able to rebuild on their properties and to come back to where they lost so much,” said EAMC manager Lisa Ruffin.

They are building three homes with an end-of-the-week deadline to have them finished. Organizers said it’s about more than repairing homes, it’s about repairing the hearts and lives of those who are now without a home.

“It shows what a neighborhood we have, what a community we have, and how strong our ties to one another are,” said Maribeth Wolfe with Landmark Builders.

"My thought and prayer is that we have a long way to go, but when it’s all said and done, we can look at it and say ‘look what God did. Look what God did,’ said Rusty Sowell, pastor of Providence Baptist Church.

In addition to the three homes that are being built this week, organizers said there’s a plan to build eight more homes in September. They said they can’t stress enough the need for donations and volunteers.

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