Saturday evening, about an hour after an EF-3 tornado ripped through Columbus, Willie McCord went to check on his church.
Tenth Avenue Church of Christ is located next to the Sim Scott Park Community Center and across the street from Columbus Success Academy (the old Hunt High School). The former was leveled while the latter was badly damaged.
McCord’s church, by comparison, missed the brunt of the storm, suffering roof damage on the church’s west wing and some blown-out windows.
“We were fortunate,” McCord said.
So when he started receiving calls, asking if he needed help, McCord turned his attention to others.
“We didn’t need anything. Nobody in our church was affected,” he said. “But I felt like we needed to respond to the needs of our community. People were hurting.”
McCord knew just who to call, too: Churches of Christ Disaster Relief, Inc. based in Nashville, Tennessee.
He called the nonprofit on Monday. Just 24 hours later, a tractor-trailer loaded with $70,000 of supplies — pre-packed food boxes, hygiene boxes, water, new clothing, cleaning supplies, even mops, brooms and wheelbarrows — pulled into the church’s parking lot with a police escort.
After a day of unloading and organizing, volunteers from the church, along with volunteers from other area churches of Christ, began distributing the relief items.
“This is a blessing,” said Sarah Wiley, 63. “The tornado didn’t hit our house, but the electricity was out. It didn’t come back on until Tuesday. All our food spoiled.”
Wiley was there to pick up a food box, which will feed a family of four for a week, along with a box of cleaning supplies.
Diane Garner Dodds, 46, who lives just a few houses down from the church, was more affected by the storm.
“I need help,” she said as she waited for her order to be filled. “I’ve got a big hole in my roof and the water just poured in. I can’t stay there. I need to find a permanent place to live. I can’t go back there.”
A well-organized effort
Wiley and Dodds were two of more than 300 people who arrived at the church Wednesday seeking help.
By the end of the day, only a couple dozen of the food boxes remained. The supply is likely to be exhausted early Thursday.
But that doesn’t mean the relief effort is over.
“We’re going to keep helping as long as there is a need,” McCord said.
In Nashville, Mike Lewis, executive director for Churches of Christ Disaster Relief, Inc., said all he needs is a phone call.
“We have an 87,000 square-foot warehouse and 900 volunteers in the Nashville area,” Lewis said. “Thursday is a packing day for us. We’ll have seven trucks loaded and ready to go wherever there is a need. All we need is a phone call and we’ll be on the way.”
The organization has been providing disaster relief since 1990 and relies entirely on donations from individuals and Church of Christ congregations across the nation. Last year, it provided more than $8 million in relief items.
“Over the years, we’ve learned a lot from the work we’ve done,” Lewis said. “We’ve got it down to a pretty good science.”
Along with the supplies, the organization sends along what Lewis calls a “field manual” to help volunteers with the distribution process.
Wednesday, local volunteers such as Annie Harris, a member at 10th Avenue Church of Christ, spent the day unloading and setting up the distribution system.
As people arrived Wednesday, they were met in the church foyer, where they were registered and asked to provide ID and addresses then assigned a number. They then went to the sanctuary, where they sat until their number was called.
Returning to the foyer, they were given a list of available items and, with the help of a volunteer, filled out a form that included the items they needed. From there, they went outside and to the back of the church, where more volunteers put the requested items together and brought them out to the storm victims.
“It really is going well,” Harris said. “It’s very organized, especially with getting the things together. Not everybody has the same needs, so taking some time to talk to them and finding out what it is they need, then putting it together ourselves, really makes the process run smoothly.”
Finding hope
While the needs of the people who turned out Wednesday may vary, there is one thing all of them seemed to need, McCord said.
“In every box, the first thing they see when the open it is a sheet of paper. It has the word HOPE on it,” McCord said. “That’s really what this is all about.
“These things will help their physical needs and we’re happy to provide that,” he added. “But we want to meet their spiritual needs, too. We want them to know that we care. That’s really the most important thing we can give them. We are here for them and we’ll continue to be here for them.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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