Storm-damaged areas transition into rebuild mode

State disaster relief director Tommy Puckett says that in Enterprise, there’s no magic wand and no snap of the fingers that can instantly make the town the way it was before a tornado ripped through March 1, destroying whole neighborhoods and killing nine.
  
“It just takes time — time, organization and lots of help,” he said.
  
Over a three-day period after the storm hit, more than 150 Alabama Baptist volunteers were mobilized to Enterprise, finishing cleanup at more than 80 homes. More than 3,000 soldiers from a nearby military base also joined the effort, Puckett said.
  
“When media attention comes in at such a high volume, volunteers come out of the woodwork,” he said.
  
And now that the initial wave of cleanup help has finished up and pulled out, Puckett said leaders are “taking one thing at a time based on the needs and following the lead of the community.”
  
After the Red Cross shelter and feeding unit shut down March 7, a feeding unit from the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) started giving out meals March 8 at a park owned by First Baptist Church, Enterprise, in Coffee Baptist Association. At press time, disaster relief leaders were planning to serve 2,000 meals a day out of this unit. 
  
A child-care unit also started work in the community out of Westview Baptist Church on March 8.
  
Individuals and groups around the state are similarly meeting specific needs in the second wave of help, such as: 
   – NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, in Birmingham Baptist Association, which provided water and diapers March 7 at the request of the Enterprise Chamber of Commerce,
   – Students from the Baptist Campus Ministries of Troy University, who went behind chain saw crews to clean the yards of senior adults, and
   – Volunteers from Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who have coordinated housing for storm victims in addition to sending cleanup crews.
  
Many teams from the SBOM are going through the organization of local Lutherans to do similar follow-up cleanup work in the damaged neighborhoods and put up tarps to cover damaged homes, Puckett said.
  
He explained that these and future volunteers will focus on transitioning the town from cleanup to recovery, repairing and rebuilding. 
  
Case studies are being drawn up to see if homeowners qualify for government assistance, and then local disaster relief leadership will determine what materials are available and line up teams to come in and do the repairs.
 
“From here on, it’s going to be a long process,” Puckett said.
  
But area Baptists are thankful for the ongoing help, said John Granger, director of missions for Coffee Association. “The bright side of all this is that we have all kinds of volunteers wanting to help in any way they can,” he said.
 
The bright side has also materialized in the form of new believers in Christ, according to Otis Corbitt, an associate in the SBOM office of associational missions and church planting. 
  
“While we know the disaster was a terrible thing, we are glad this blessing came out of it,” he said, pointing to one blessing in particular — Mrs. Willer.
  
An assessment team from Salem-Troy Baptist Association met Mrs. Willer while putting a tarp on her roof after the storm. 
  
Mrs. Willer, a retiree from New York, was keeping her 1-year-old great-grandson when the storm came through. 
  
She threw him into the tub and lay on top of him as about a third of her roof was blown off, Corbitt said.
  
Still shaken days later, she was glad to meet the Salem-Troy Baptists, and after some conversation, comforting and prayer, a team member — Pat Folmer of Hephzibah Baptist Church, Troy — was able to lead Mrs. Willer to salvation in Christ.
  
“Isn’t God good? We are so grateful that He allowed us to be a part of His saving grace in the life of Mrs. Willer,” Corbitt said.
  
In Adamsville, where another tornado wiped out about 80 homes the same day the tornado struck Enterprise, more than 130 volunteers from seven Baptist associations did chain saw and cleanup work over a three-day period, Puckett said.
  
No crews have been called out yet through the SBOM to Millers Ferry in Wilcox County, where a tornado also touched down, killing one, according to Puckett. But John Marks, director of missions for the local Bethlehem and Pine Barren Baptist associations, said a major cleanup effort was to take place March 10 that would involve many volunteers.
  
To contribute to the convention’s disaster relief efforts, send checks to the SBOM at P.O. Box 11870, Montgomery, AL 36111. To find out how to assist in Coffee Association, call Kaye Clark at the associational office at 334-894-6411.