Parry's New Deal Era Photo Blog: Friday, November 1, 2013 - 10:00AM - 4:00 PM - The Day After the Wind Storm

So the day after the big wind storm, I get a call from Jedd Flowers early in the morn telling us that school was cancelled due to power outages. Sweet! Then moments later, another automated call came through that informed us that although school was cancelled for students, staff still had to report on time as usual. Bummer.

So I get there at school and quickly find out that the only power in the building is the emergency power used to light the hallways...Bummer once more. So the staff had to just hang out in the hallways until we finally got the call from the Central Office that school would indeed be closed for all staff at 9:30 AM... Yippee Skippy! In the hours waiting in the hallway, Hunter Roush and I were talking about random topics in the hallway. I told him that we should go out and get some shots of Huntington if we got dismissed early from school. He agreed to do so and he met up with me at my house after we were dismissed from school and we went on an excursion to take shots of the night's carnage from the windstorm. A quick visit to WSAZ online revealed that there was a considerable amount of damage in two locations: Ritter Park and the Neighborgall building on 12th Street. So that was our compass for the morning and early afternoon. These pictures tell the story of the cleanup from the destruction from the previous night. In addition we stopped at Po Boy's Tires on Hal Greer Blvd. on the way back from the Neighborgall building and talked with a few individuals there and around that location. Enjoy!

Stop, November 1, 2013

The next several shots are of "shirtless logger man in Ritter Park." This guy was the living, walking, and breathing definition of a "man's man." Half of the time he had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth whilst scaling the disabled tree 30-40 ft in the air and using a chainsaw to cut down the behemoth. Grizzled and unfazed by our photo op, he continued about his work like it was a typical day at the office. Talk about being plucked right out of the New Deal era. He might be my most interesting character I've shot so far.

Shirtless logger grimaces, November 1, 2013

Shirtless logger climbs down tree in Ritter Park, Nov.1, 2013

Shirtless logger turns head while sawing tree in Ritter Park, Nov.1, 2013

Shirtless logger saws out a chunk in the tree at Ritter Park, Nov. 1, 2013

Here are also a few shots of the other workers who were on "shirtless logger man's" crew. The guy with the massive beard was the yin to "SLM's" yang, helping out as needed. And the crane operator was the guy behind the scenes talking to the supervisors on his phone about the progress being made.