(Photo: AP / John Bazemore)Church member Quentin Vaughn tries to salvage what he can from the St. Matthew's Missionary Baptist Church in Newton, Ga., Saturday, Mar 3, 2007. The church was damaged when a tornado touched down Thursday.
(Photo: AP / Mari Darr~Welch)Pedestrians walk past scattered debris at Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Ala., Thursday, March 1, 2007. Apparent tornadoes killed at least 18 people in Alabama on Thursday, including 15 at the high school where students were trapped under a collapsed roof, state officials said.
(Photo: AP / The Dothan Eagle, Jay Hare)Heath Hughes looks at the damage done to his home after a tornado swept through the Echo community near Ozark, Ala., Thursday afternoon, March 1, 2007, demolishing homes and poultry houses in the area. Tornadoes killed at least 18 people Thursday in Alabama.
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Church groups remain on the grounds of the tornado-devastated states in the South where assistance has only begun to flow in.
Storms swept through Missouri, Alabama and Georgia, where hundreds of homes and churches were destroyed and at least 20 people left dead last Thursday. Some of the students killed at a local high school in Enterprise, Ala., were members of Baptist churches. The first of the funerals for the eight students was held Monday.
The Red Cross has set up its operations at local churches to shelter and aid storm victims and 13 Baptist chaplains, trained in critical incident stress management, were dispatched to Enterprise.
Other churches suffered damage from wind and rain, losing steeples and church signs or becoming rubble altogether.
"The situation here resembles a site where bombs have been dropped,” Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, told the Baptist Press. “Trees are downed. Houses are damaged and destroyed in significant numbers.”
Samaritan's Purse disaster relief volunteers set up post at Central Baptist Church in Americus, Ga., and other locations immediately after the tornado hit to assess the damage and coordinate an effective response with local authorities. The Salvation Army also made its quick move to get disaster services personnel on the affected grounds by Friday.
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The Army continues to serve food with three canteens and one van in Alabama as of Saturday.
"Each meal and snack represents our desire to meet the needs of the communities we serve, physically, emotionally, and spiritually," said Captain Donald New of The Salvation Army in Selma in a released statement. "We will be here after the cameras leave. This is what we do 365 days a year ... meeting human needs."
Providing financial assistance, the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is sending an initial $20,000 to the South Alabama and Flint River presbyteries in support of their response efforts. The money is to be directed to "do whatever is necessary" in immediate response, according to PDA Coordinator Susan Ryan, the Presbyterian News Service reported.
Members of PDA's National Response Team have also been coordinated for dispatch.
"My sense is that we're in for a very busy spring," Ryan said. "I don't recall this much activity in years this early in the spring. So I think people need to be ready. We're going to be busy this year."
Meteorologist Patrick Dennis of Ark-La-Tex's KSLA News 12 said it's too early to tell if the region will see an active storm season this spring, but cautioned for preparation no matter the season.
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