By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
So much more — that’s what the March 3 tornadoes were to Rusty Sowell. So much more than he ever could have imagined.
He’d heard before that tornadoes sound like a freight train, but as he and his wife lay on the floor and an F-4 storm rolled over their house, it was so much louder than a freight train could ever be, he said.
And it was more deadly than Sowell ever could have guessed as he wrapped up church services that morning at Providence Baptist Church, Opelika, the place he’s served as pastor for the past 35 years.
“Our fire chief alerted me that there were some serious weather alerts, so we opened up the basement of the church as a shelter for anyone who wanted to come,” he said.
People lined up. A Providence Baptist team trained in disaster response began registering people as they entered, including one church member who had gone home from church with her grandchildren, then thought better of it and drove back to the church basement.
In the end there wasn’t time to register everybody, Sowell said — church members had to throw open the doors and get everyone inside. One tornado dropped, then another as more than 80 people huddled there at the church.
‘Bonus day’
“I had no idea at that point that so many people were gathered at the church,” Sowell said.
But minutes later as the air cleared and the phone calls came, so did information. People had died and first responders — including Sowell’s son — were searching for the missing.
The church member who had turned around and driven back to the church — her house was totally gone.
“We know of several like that who went home after the storm and their properties were totally destroyed, so we feel like lives were saved that day,” Sowell said.
Sowell was one of them — homes all around his were destroyed. He says he sees every day since March 3 as a “bonus day,” one he might never have had if things had been slightly different.
He’s reminded of that daily as he drives by the 23 white wooden crosses on the lawn of Providence Baptist, notes written on them in marker to memorialize loved ones lost in the community.
“We realize our humanity and that life can change on a dime. It has,” Sowell said. “I’ve seen grown men cry — me included.”
Providence Baptist is currently making plans for a permanent monument on the church lawn to memorialize those who lost their lives that day.
A couple of weeks ago, as more thunderclouds rolled in and rain splashed the 23 wooden crosses on the lawn, people came flooding to the church’s basement again, begging to get to safety.
The trauma is “still so fresh,” Sowell said. “Time is a great healer but it doesn’t come fast enough.”
But where time has been slow, God has been right on time — to the point that church members are still shaking their heads in disbelief, he said.
Back in 1995 when Hurricane Opal’s path traced across Lee County the church was “dead in the water” for a few days, Sowell said. They didn’t have power and they didn’t have any resources to use to minister in the community.
So in the years after, when they built the church’s west campus, they built the building with disaster in mind. Though it’s big enough to house worship services it’s got other intentional features too — like massive shower and restroom facilities, a large commercial kitchen and a huge diesel generator.
And now, 24 years after Opal, Sowell says the church is confident God saw this coming.
“There was a moment a day or two into the tornadoes that as clothes were stacked head high and the room was filled with supplies, toiletries and water that we looked around and said, ‘You know this is what this building was built for,’” he said. “We began to look back and see the hand of God every step of the way. It’s just humbling.”
Tell their stories
And God provided the team too, Sowell said.
One church member runs a trucking company and knew how to get things they needed plus how to organize shipments as they were coming in from generous donors across the country.
Another church member had experience running a commercial cafeteria.
Still another was Toni Long, the Tuskegee-Lee Baptist Association disaster relief coordinator who organized relief efforts alongside Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief leaders.
“We had key people in our church that God brought through the years,” Sowell said.
Another was David Dismukes, whose father, Robert, was pastor of Providence Baptist until he died in 1984. Dismukes grew up in the community, served in public affairs in the army and recently retired back to the area.
“He knew how to handle all the media and logistics,” Sowell said.
As Dismukes drives around the area these days people know his truck. He’s personally visited with the families of every victim, and as he goes down the list of crosses he can tell their stories.
The first, Marshall Grimes, was a member of the Christian Motorcyclists Association.
“I went back and found him on Facebook and after the first tornado rolled through, he posted on his wall that he had made it through just fine,” Dismukes said.
The second tornado took his life.
Another victim, a small child, was missing the night of the tornado and Dismukes was called to join a search party. Before he got out the door he got the call that they had found the child’s body.
“Seeing them carry in the body bags, especially the small ones, is the worst part,” said Dismukes, who along with Sowell — also a longtime volunteer firefighter and hospital chaplain — worked at the first responders’ staging area the night of the storms.
Sowell agreed.
As a chaplain, “when we’re called in it’s trauma; it’s tragedy,” he said. “But this one has been harder than all of them.”
It’s been a tough struggle, he said, but the church is learning to praise God in the valley and lean into their faith.
“A lot of people are still walking around shell shocked, thinking they might wake up and it might be a bad dream,” Sowell said. “But it’s not. It’s been a real dark moment but there have been glimmers of light all the way through this. God has taken care of us and we’ve tried to do our best to take care of everyone, and I think that’s been a witness to the community of hope and love.”
The best way to help Beauregard in the immediate future is to donate to the work being done out of Providence Baptist Church, Opelika (providencealive.com), or Tuskegee-Lee Baptist Association (tuskegeelee.org).
They are working with survivors to determine what is not being covered by insurance, FEMA, etc., and trying to meet those needs. Another good option is to help support the work of Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief by giving to sbdr.org/donate.
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