Cordova, Ala., Fire Chief Dean Harbison, left, and Mayor Drew Gilbert walk through the town’s tornado-damaged downtown. The area looks much as it did right after tornadoes struck in April 2011 because the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to provide funding for demolition and the city can’t afford to do the work itself.CORDOVA, Ala. – Main Street in this old mill town looks about the same as it did the day after tornadoes killed about 250 people across Alabama a year and a half ago: Battered red bricks and broken glass litter the pavement, and the buildings still standing are rickety and roofless.
The entire one-block downtown, still deemed unsafe, remains sealed off by a chain-link fence. City officials blame the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying the money to demolish skeletons of the old buildings is mired in miles of red tape.
When one request for photos or historical documentation is met, FEMA makes another, the mayor and others in this town of 2,100 say. One crop of workers is replaced by another, forcing locals to constantly explain their problems to new people.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Mayor Drew Gilbert, a 25-year-old Cordova native who served on the City Council before taking office this month. “You would think it’s been touched and seen now by everyone who needs to touch and see it.”
On April 27, 2011, dozens of tornadoes ripped across the southeast, spawned by freakish weather. Hundreds were killed and thousands of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, causing more than $1 billion in damage.