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TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Throughout the month of May, SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers joined Southern Baptists from around the country to assist victims of the F5 tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 27.
The mile-wide tornado tore through neighborhoods, damaging hundreds of homes and taking dozens of lives. As is typical of tornadoes, when DR teams arrived on May 1 they noted that some neighborhoods seemed untouched. Businesses were open and life went on much as usual. A block away, however, all that remained of some homes were foundation slabs.
Jim Howard, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Atlanta, Texas, served as the “white cap” in charge of the SBTC teams working in Tuscaloosa. Howard and four other men had been attending a DR training when the call came to head to Alabama. The three-day climbing training perfectly prepared them for the work ahead. Trainees had learned to use climbing equipment safely to scale trees for chainsaw work. A large part of the recovery included chopping up uprooted trees and those that fell on homes or strewn across yards.
“We were able to go immediately to Alabama and start using those new skills,” Howard said. “It was incredible how that worked out.”
As the white cap, Howard was the first Texan on site to assess the damage and begin processing work orders. The first of the teams arrived and began work two days later. Volunteers were assembled into an operations team, a feeding team and two chainsaw teams. According to Howard, the teams were larger than usual due to the scope of the damage.
Trailer house frames wrapped themselves around buildings and trees. Mangled cars lay where the twister scattered them. Trees not entirely uprooted stood, stripped of their branches.
“The trees in that area are huge,” Howard said, “and dangerous. One tree had fallen on top of another in one backyard. We had to hold the tree up while we were cutting it. As we cut one section, a 14-foot limb came crashing down and we had to jump out of the way. So the work can be dangerous.”
Now, the nearly month-long DR marathon is coming to an end. For 20 grueling days an average of 60 volunteers were working. Volunteers rotated in and out of Tuscaloosa in five-day shifts trying to help as many people as possible without spreading themselves too thin. With approximately 80 work orders completed, Texas relief teams planned to finish their operations by May 20, leaving the few remaining work orders to be completed by Alabama teams. But, Howard acknowledged, for the people suffering through this tragedy, the recovery process will continue long after the DR teams go.
“It will take at least a year for them just to get back to a place where they’re on track again,” Howard said.
Recovery also includes emotional trauma. Volunteers recalled story after story of heartbreak and human loss. With no time to grieve, many of these were already back at work only days later, struggling to support the survivors.
Many of those the volunteer teams talk to were Christians; others were weighing what they believed.
“We had a conversation with one family wondering why this happened,” Howard recalls. “We were able to tell them that when sin entered the world, it not only affected man, but also the whole of creation. We told them that since that time all of creation groans and will groan until Christ’s return. I think we were able to help them understand that this was not caused by God, but it was caused by sin.”
The greatest contribution Howard hopes to make in the victims’ lives is that of hope. That is the real gift teams give as they cut up trees, haul off debris, and provide warm meals.
“The bottom line is that we want everything we do to bring glory to God,” Howard said.
SBTC Disaster Relief director Jim Richardson said the Alabama tornado is proof even more DR volunteers are needed for large-scale disasters.
“We’ve had enough volunteers to deal with it all,” Richardson said, “but we’d like to double our number in the next couple years. We’d like churches to see the SBTC as an extension of their local ministry. We’re going to continue to recruit volunteers and push training.”
For more information on volunteering for DR ministry, contact Richardson by e-mail at jrichardson@sbtexas.com or by phone at 940-704-9346. You may donate to SBTC Disaster Relief online by credit card or writing a check to “Disaster Relief.” All funds go directly toward current or future disaster relief efforts. Checks should be mailed to the SBTC office at P.O. Box 1988, Grapevine 76099-1988.
