It was a sight 13-year-old Fritz Wilson never forgot.
It was 1974 and downed trees and power lines battled for attention across tornado-ravaged Walker County. Rain and wind pelted the area that Wednesday night as Fritz and his father, James, gathered people inside the church hallways. An entire Jasper fire station disappeared under a funnel cloud, and the top level of the courthouse shifted. The “Super Outbreak” was considered the worst in U.S. history.
Some 37 years later leading Florida Baptist disaster relief volunteers to his home state after the deadly April 27 tornado outbreak, Wilson looked at toppled trees, downed power lines, mangled homes, ravished neighborhoods and broken faces and saw the same thing.
But this time — instead of riding along with his dad, a cable-repair man, to check on things — Wilson, director of disaster relief for the Florida Baptist Convention, anticipated much of the need as a leader with years of experience and resources to direct.
“I can look at a disaster and have a quick sense of how a disaster will unfold,” he said. “God has given me the ability to look at it and make a strategic plan about what to do.”
At the annual National Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Roundtable in Lynchburg, Va., Wilson took a rare phone call from his mom, Bobbie, alerting him that straight-line winds had hit Alabama hard the morning of April 27 and things were going to get worse.
“It’s never a good morning when you answer the phone and your mom starts out with, ‘Everything’s OK but,’” he said. “I was sitting with Mel Johnson (Alabama’s head of disaster relief) and jokingly told him he had a tornado and to go home.”
By the next morning, Wilson said things moved into fast forward and Florida Baptist disaster relief was asked to serve in his home base — Walker County.
By April 29, Wilson; his wife, Alabama-native Deborah Watson Wilson; and two sons were on their way to Jasper. Stopping by the Alabama Baptist State Convention headquarters in Montgomery, he didn’t flinch when plans changed on a dime. He grabbed a bag he had packed separately for himself in anticipation of being asked to stay. He spent the next 10 days or so sleeping in the building’s basement with other volunteers.
“I sensed something like that might happen,” Wilson said. In Montgomery, he served as the disaster relief planning officer, coordinating the activation of out of state units to Alabama.
Deborah Wilson headed 120 miles north to First Baptist Church, Jasper, where teams from Florida began to arrive early the next morning. Assessment teams from the National Weather Service had evaluated only a handful of the tornadoes that tore through the area, and by that afternoon, the Hackleburg tornado, 64 miles away, was rated an EF-5. The next day, they determined the Cordova tornado, 15 miles away, was an EF-4.
In Jasper, Deborah was assisted at times by her younger sister, while she served as the administration officer, took care of daily reports, coordinated communication between the disaster relief leaders and tracked Florida teams as they traveled.
“This was a different feeling for me,” Deborah said. “It’s just like old home week,” being home where family members and longtime friends stopped by to check in and thank her on behalf of the community.
And when the long days finally wound down, she went home to stay with her mom.
“Mom has been fighting ovarian cancer for so long it’s just good for me to be able to check on her a little bit,” Deborah said emotionally.
For Ina Watson, having her daughter and grandchildren in Jasper was a special treat.
“I am very proud of her; when she does a job, she wants to do it right. Her dad was so proud of her, too,” she said.
There was a lot of pride going around Walker County as the buzz spread about Florida Baptists. “My hometown has stepped up to the plate, basically,” Deborah said. “They’ve showed their good side.”
On Mother’s Day, Fritz finally made his way to Jasper to join the family and surprised his parents at Providence Baptist Church.
Bobbie said he drew her a Mother’s Day card on a table napkin at a local restaurant as a gift. “We always do different things,” she laughed.
His parents understand the nature of his work, Fritz said, and although seven of nine large trees in their yard were uprooted by the storm, they didn’t have any expectations of teams heading their way to help. In fact, Bobbie said repeatedly they needed to help those with more pressing needs.
Fritz said hearing about Cordova and seeing pictures of Tuscaloosa and other heavily damaged areas of Alabama, he immediately flashed back to the 1974 tornado outbreak and knew what it would be like for Alabamians — especially those in the rural areas away from the glare of the TV cameras.
“I think this is the heart of the ministry, when we look at this and we think about how devastating this is,” Fritz said.
“I’ve had a ringside seat to numerous national and international disasters over the last 12 years,” Fritz said. “For a guy from Jasper, Ala., who graduated in 1979, I wouldn’t have imagined I would be doing this today. I am greatly and humbly honored to do what I do and that God put Deborah with me to encourage me and empower me and walk beside me.”
James, he said, taught him in the manner of the apostle Paul to be courageous.
“[My dad] wasn’t afraid to work on things, to take things apart,” Fritz said.
James said he believes Fritz is right where he belongs in disaster relief. “I think it was meant for him to be in DR,” James said. “He’s seen it and was involved after Hurricane Frederic at Mobile College (now the University of Mobile).”
Although Fritz never did become a “preacher,” James said he is a minister and a missionary “because he’s certainly doing mission work because he’s ministering to people in the name of the Lord.”
Noting Fritz was responsible for Haiti’s Buckets of Hope, James said it makes him “proud and humble” when he considers his son’s accomplishments.
Fritz is uncomfortable about the accolades he receives, preferring at times to sit at the piano to calm inner storms, James said.
“I just want to serve God the best I can as a husband, as a leader within the Florida Baptist Convention disaster relief ministry,” Fritz said.
In Florida and Alabama, there is a lot of love and trust extended to Fritz and Deborah — and appreciation for what they contribute to Southern Baptist disaster relief.
Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said Fritz provided “experienced assistance” following the April 27 outbreak.
“As a former Alabama Baptist, he knows our state well, and his disaster relief background in Florida was immensely helpful. Fritz is a valuable leader in Southern Baptist Convention life as a disaster relief coordinator,” Lance said. “Florida Baptists can and should be proud of his valuable ministry. Alabama Baptists are grateful for his assistance during this historic disaster relief response.”
Cecil Seagle, interim director of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana and former director of the missions division for the Florida convention, said he believes the Wilsons are a great resource.
“Fritz and Deborah Wilson are among God’s most gifted disaster relief leaders,” Seagle said. “Going home was more than a homecoming; it was our Father’s way of using a native son and daughter for His purpose in Alabama. They are simply the best of the best.”
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