Dear Editor:

To the people of Covington County in the Red Oak area — this past Saturday morning, my wife with our two young boys, my older sister and her two daughters, and my younger sister and her family with three young kids, were traveling home from visiting our parents in Ft. Walton Beach up Hwy. 55 from Florala to Andulusia.

As we left Florala, the sirens went off for a tornado. As we watched ahead, which was hard to do with the darkness at 5:30 a.m., we found ourselves in the middle of the storm that went through the Red Oak Area. We finally saw enough road to pull over our cars by the Red Oak Area VFD and a church to wait out the storm.

I am writing this to say “thank you” to the volunteer firemen at Red Oak Area VFD. The first one who arrived asked immediately if we were all OK. He asked us twice. He advised us to stay put because there was a tree down and power lines just north of the firehouse. He even advised us not to travel the back roads because of the flooding.

Then another fireman came up to our vans and asked if we were OK. He then had us go over to the firehouse to have our kids use the restroom facilities even though they didn’t have electricity. This act of kindness was given to people they had no idea who they were. The Red Oak area who is protected by these volunteers are very fortunate. They were truly our heroes that day.

As soon as they cleared the road, the first young man came back and told us the road was open and there was another storm coming so we needed to head north now. As we left, we grabbed a little piece of paper that said Red Oak Area VFD is having a supper and silent auction this Saturday the 4th.

Please go out and support these guys as a donation will be sent from this family from Indiana for the act of kindness that these firemen showed us. These guys are heroes, so go support them.

Thank you again for keeping us safe and caring for our family. Words cannot express the gratitude that we could ever show them.

Gratitude from the Hoosier State,

Brett Ratcliffe and Family

Kelli Ruble and Family

Kandi Riley and Family