Erik Elliott, a Stockade Territory Manager joined his colleagues Brian West and Andy Starnes to help with recovery efforts in the aftermath of Kentucky’s devasting tornado.
“For hundreds of miles, Kentucky is rolling hills, horses, and beef cattle. But driving down the road the trees are thrown in a spiral pattern, then no trees whatsoever, completely gone. Or a house has gone, the roof is gone, or on one side of the street everything is gone. Then the other side of the street there is minimal damage. There is no rhyme or reason.”
“Reports said satellites were seeing material from this storm 30-40 thousand feet up in space. That’s how powerful this tornado was. There are not enough words to describe the devastation.”
“I am very grateful to Eric Miller from Stay-Tuff Fence Manufacturing. He saw a need and acted upon it.”
Eric Miller worked with the Kentucky Farm Bureau to find farmers who had the most pressing needs. He then coordinated a combined effort of Stockade, Gallagher, PLP and Stay-Tuff personnel. This crew of nine ag-fence folk worked on two farms in Bremen, Kentucky.
“The first job we were doing was for a gentleman who had lost family, cattle and his home in the tornado. We were there to help him get his cattle to a place where they could graze and wouldn’t be out on the road. As we were laying posts and getting the wire ready, he was picking up whatever he could to clear the way, whether it was trash or if it was memories. All the things out of his house.”
“We showed up and built three, four, and five-line fences alongside the Gallagher team fencing from Tuesday morning to the end of the week and into an incoming snowstorm. We did all the posts and used our tools for the insulators. We blew through two and a half boxes of staples and donated a total of ten boxes so there are more there at the Kentucky Farm Bureau for those guys to use. On other sections we ran out approximately 900 feet of fence on both sides of the road. Then ran a couple of 1000 feet across the next farm.”
Jeremy McGill from Gallagher lives one county over. Even though his farm received damage, he came over working on this person’s farm and supplied all the electrical product. PLP supplied end terminations and splices for the wire, Stay-Tuff donated the wire, and we provided the labor for fixing the insulators, tying knots and everything that was needed for this side of the business.
“These two farms, if you were to sum it up in percentages, probably represent 1/10th of 1% of what was damaged.”
“We are grateful to Stay-Tuff for inviting us to do this, and to Stockade/ITW for the provision of community leave which allowed us to respond quickly to this need. That was a huge benefit for us, and I am grateful to have played a small part in a huge undertaking.
This event changed my entire outlook on life. We were just glad to be part of it.”
