Hurricane Sally, September 2020

The tornado descended  near  Camp  Jordon and  moved  through  Audubon  Acres  Bird  Sanctuary  downing dozens of  trees and  passing  within  200  yards  of  Jim  Ingersoll’s  home,  Program  Director  for  2Serve,  on  its  journey  of  destruction to  the  other  side  of  Collegedale, TN.  It  left behind  a  trail  of  destroyed  homes,  businesses,  schools ,  churches and  parks. As  our home and  yard  were  spared  my wife and I went out immediately after the storm passed to  assess the  damage  in our community and  see if anyone was injuried. Finding  no  homes  damaged  and  trees  blocking  the  only  road  out  of  our  part  of  the  community  we  stared  clearing  it at 4:00 a.m. using  car  headlights  to  work  by.  We  worked  1  1/2  hours  on  our  own  before  being joined  by  a  neighbor  with  his  saw  and  at  first  light  our  son  arrived  followed  by  other  neighbors  shortly  thereafter.  It  took  us  until  about  8 a.m. to  get  one  lane  cleared  at  which  time  first  responders  began to  arrive  to  do  their  assessment  of  our  neighborhood.  I  gave  them  a  brief  report  of  what  they  would  find  and  carried  on  with  further  road  clearing   with  our  neighbors.  At  around  9  a.m.  a  group  of  workers  from  Howe  Farms,  including  our  daughter  arrived  with  a  bobcat  that  could  move  bigger  logs  out  of  the  way  much  more  easily.  Shortly  thereafter we  got  the  upper  road  cleared  and  moved  on  to  help  people clear  their yards  and  driveways  getting  most  everyone  cleared  by 5  p.m.  making  for  a  long  day of  work.

2Serve  led  a  team   of  adults they  put  together along  with  other  volunteers  recruited by  the  Collegedale  Seventh-day  Adventist  Church  over  the  next  two  weeks helping  people  on  Bill  Reid  Road  and in the  Holly  Hills  community  mostly. While  we  had  Southern  Adventist  University  students  helping  us  on  two  most  university  and  academy  students  were  not  available  to  respond  because  of  social  distancing  and having  to  do  their  schoolwork  via  Zoom. It  was  necessary  for  them  to  attend  each  class  when  presented  as  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to  make  up  work  since  most  presentations  were not  recorded.  It  was  a  different experience  for 2Serve  to  have  only one team  of  responders  at  a  time  as  we  usually  averaged  about 100  students and sponsors  per  day  making  up  at least  five  to  seven response teams  with  each  team helping  two  to  three  homes  daily  depending  on  the  extent  of  damage  they  encountered.

Each  person  we  helped  had  a  story  of  how  they  survived  the  tornado  as  no  one  had  opportunity  to  evacuate  with   some  only  making  it  to  a  safe  place  mere  seconds  before  the  tornado  destroyed  their  home.  One  gentlemen  was  totally  distraught  and  in  tears  believing  they  were  lied  to  by  their  insurance  company  that  promised  help  that  did  not  come.  We  prayed  with  the  people  we  helped  and  in  most  cases  were  able  to  give  them  a  colorful  copy  of  the  book  Steps  To  Christ.  It  is  always  so  heartwarming  to  see  so  many  good people  doing  so  much good for  their  neighbors without  any  thought  of  getting  anything  in  return.  Another  very  interesting  observation  was  how  the  concern  for  social  distancing  never  came  up  as  hundreds of  people  worked  closely  together,  ate  together,  hugged, shook  hands  and  prayed  with each  other without  an increase  of  COVID -19 cases  noted  in  the  Greater  Chattanooga  Area.  We  are  continuing  to  see  an  increase  in  natural  disasters  giving  people  many  opportunities  to  help  each  other  in  the  aftermath. Please  pray  for  the  people  who  lost  so  much  from  this  storm  as  the  world  as  a  whole  has  moved  on  but  many  people’s  journey  to  recovery  is  just  beginning.