BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The start of this new year marks the start of a new chapter for Earcy Tucker. He’s retiring from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department after a decade of service, but he will still have a part of his old job with him at home, because it’s a home the sheriff’s office literally helped build for him after he spent years living in a tornado-damaged ruin.
Tucker’s story began in 2013 when bulldozers knocked down his old house almost three years after a tornado damaged it so badly no one thought anyone was still living there. Sheriff’s Lieutenant Rucker Sumerlin discovered Tucker was living in the damaged structure with no running water or power.
“When I got inside, I saw it was filled with mold and mildew and there were holes in the floor, and from the water damage, where the rain was coming in from the roof,” Sumerlin said.
From disaster to new beginning
Tucker received some help from FEMA, but it wasn’t enough given the extensive damage…