Forrest Wright said he always prays for God to show him which houses to stop at. So on Wednesday (May 21) when he was driving around in the storm-damaged areas of Colbert County, he prayed that prayer again.
“I felt compelled to go to this one particular house,” said Wright, who leads the Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association disaster relief team. “When I got there, it was clear no one lived there.”
But then a car pulled in behind him, and it was the woman who owned the house. Not long after, her husband also arrived. At first they were suspicious, but once they realized Wright was there to help, they softened, he said.
“You could see his face relax, and his whole demeanor changed, and he and his wife started telling me a story,” Wright said.
‘A chance to take a breath’
The couple told Wright that they weren’t living in the house at the moment because it hadn’t been repaired yet from tornado damage that happened several weeks ago. That was now compounded by the new damage.
“They had trees all around their house, and they were so blown away that somebody would stop just to help them,” Wright said. “She said, ‘We’re at the end of our rope, and you have given us a chance to take a breath.'”
The Colbert-Lauderdale team started working there yesterday (May 22), clearing eight massive trees from the yard and clearing the way for the power company to get electricity restored. Wright said his team has at least several more jobs waiting on them.
The area was hard hit when a storm system came through north Alabama on Tuesday night (May 20), spawning tornadoes. Areas near the city of Madison were also hit by a tornado that night, and Madison Baptist Association has been out assessing needs, according to Jack Fuson, the association’s disaster relief director.
‘We want to respond’
In addition to coordinating with Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Madison Association’s team is part of a network called Volunteer Organizations Active During Disasters that compiles needs in their local area all in one database. Agencies then come together to help serve the needs that are collected.
Fuson said Madison Baptists’ disaster relief team has identified four needs so far through that database that it will deploy chainsaw teams to help tomorrow (May 24).
“We want to respond to help in whatever way we can,” he said.
Share with others: