INDUSTRY NEWS TOWING & RECOVERY
The Buffalo James Lynn Hurst
H
urst Towing was established on January 16, 1987. On January 25th, 2021, life changed in a moment for James Lynn Hurst, Owner of Hurst Towing in Fultondale, Alabama. Hurst Towing was leveled by an F3 Tornado. In mere seconds, the business was swept away, 16 trucks damaged and another building collapsed. Operator, Blake Whisonant held onto the driveshaft of the heavy wrecker as the building collapsed upon them. Blake’s life was spared by the hand of God. When night became day, it was easy to see that the only things Lynn and his loving wife, Debbie had left were faith and their towing family. It didn’t take long before towers across the state started showing up to help. Many people came to encourage and just be there. Jimmy Shatz, Opie, Shannon of ABC, Scott KIrkland of Kirkland Wrecker all came out that night. Kevin Goodyear of Goodyear Towing dropped 2 trucks at his Hayden location, saying the keys are in them, use them however long you need to use them. Greg Hinds of Austin Hinds Motors dropped off new units only days after the loss, saying, “We can horse trade later. Your business and family are my # 1 concern.” Miller picked up our rotator, delivered it to their facility where the M100 is built and made it their #1 priority! ABC Towing, Weil Wrecker Service, Kirkland, and Bambarger came to our aid.
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TOW PROFESSIONAL | Volume 13 • Issue 2 | www.towprofessional.com
The outpouring from the tow community was Lynn and Debbie’s answer that God had a lot more in store for them! This community and our faith gave us the strength to rebuild. The devastation made us rethink many things where we were deficient. When this tornado hit, we had 200 + cars on our lot, checks and paperwork out for end of day, and keys to cars just hanging on hooks. Administrative paperwork, laptops, desktop computers, checks, keys etc. were gone, and some were recovered from other counties. We were underinsured as many. Who thinks about extra coverage for fences? We do now after $40k of fence was destroyed. So, this disaster brought about many changes. Lynn stated, “I say underinsured because now many years later replacement cost, materials, inflation, and new building regulations drove the price sky high, making a previous $900,000 building now $1.4 million to replace.” We have had hard times; this type of pain can bring out the best and worst of you. Just like purifying aluminum, you get sloth that comes to the top. If you don’t get that sloth on the top it stays in and ruins the product. Lynn stated, “I use to write down my offences to God and had a list of over 30, until I heard God say, when are you going to stop counting your offences and start counting your blessings?” These are moments in life that