Tornado Recovery Continues in Hard-Hit Alabama

CORDOVA, Ala. — Almost a month after a string of storms devastated wide swaths of the southern United States, Ken Glover, RPH, quietly opened the doors of a large trailer and filled prescriptions for grateful patients. The sturdy 100-year-old building that once housed Glover Drug in Cordova, Ala., was no more, heavily damaged by two tornadoes on April 27.

In addition to the operation in Cordova (population 2,400), Glover has two other pharmacy/home care locations in Jasper, Ala., and one in Dora. All four sites had power knocked out after the first storm hit at the crack of dawn, essentially rendering backup protocols useless.

"We have a plan in place for disasters such as fires, tornadoes and floods," lamented Glover. "But this plan did not encompass total destruction within a 30- to 40-mile radius, with all of our locations knocked out at one time."

After learning of the first tornado, Glover sent a crew to Cordova to check the damage. When he heard about the destruction, he went to the store to retrieve what he could.

"There were leaks, roof damage and the window was blown out," said Glover. "All the buildings around us were crumbled. I was able to get our computer system, prescription records and the controlled drugs because we did not know what kind of security would be available."

After securing the window with plywood, Glover initially thought he had a "fixable situation." Little did he know another tornado would strike the same location later that day. After returning to his Dora store, Glover sent his crew home as the weather deteriorated. He visited a nursing home under heavy rains to deliver medicine to a patient, then wound his way back to Cordova to retrieve a printer.

On the way back to his car at about 4:40 p.m., the alarm warning went off. "Another tornado had been spotted and was on a direct path to where I was," reported Glover. "I jumped in my car and drove about eight miles home. I walked out on my back porch with my daughter, and we watched the tornado as it came over the city of Cordova."

Upon returning to the site after the second tornado, Glover realized that the "fixable situation" wasn't one.

"Total destruction," said Glover. "I have never seen anything like it in my whole life. Ten buildings sitting right where I had parked my car at 4:40 were gone. At that point, probably three-quarters of Alabama was without power."