More than 40 disaster relief teams from Baptist churches and associations across South Carolina are on the ground in three Southeastern states in the aftermath of the deadliest tornado outbreak in the region in nearly 80 years.
Cliff Satterwhite monitors the progress of disaster relief volunteers from South Carolina who have deployed across the Southeast to respond to the widespread devastation wreaked by the deadly tornadoes of April 27.Scores of trained volunteers from the Palmetto State are assisting the victims of storms that claimed 350 lives in six states by providing meals, hot showers, laundry facilities, chainsaw cleanup, roof-tarping, grief counseling and crisis intervention. As tired workers complete a week on the field, other teams deploy to take their places.
South Carolina’s multi-state response is being coordinated from a temporary command center on the second floor of the Baptist building on Stoneridge Drive in Columbia. In the building’s “innovation room” – a place crowded with computers and telephones – workers plan and track disaster relief volunteers’ assignments on large whiteboards visible from any seat in the room.
“This is probably the biggest multiple state deployment we’ve ever done,” said Cliff Satterwhite, director of the disaster relief group for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. “Hurricane Katrina was bigger than this, but for the amount of devastation all over Alabama and northern Georgia, it was almost the perfect storm, as tornadoes go.”
Hardest hit was Alabama, where tornadoes ripped a 200-mile swath across the state from Tuscaloosa to the Georgia state line, killing 249 people.
In all, killer tornadoes claimed 350 lives in six states. In addition to Alabama’s fatalities, the death toll from other southern states was 34 in Mississippi, 34 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, 14 in Arkansas and five in Virginia.
South Carolina Disaster Relief has established a strong presence in Alabama, where teams have “basically been given Huntsville by Alabama Baptists,” Satterwhite said. Multiple relief units of all types are operating in Huntsville, he said.
South Carolina also has several units in the Georgia towns of Ringgold and Trenton, two of the state’s hardest-hit areas. From Ringgold, chainsaw team volunteers called to report that, in addition to downed trees, all the houses were gone. “It’s like a bomb hit here,” a team member told Satterwhite.
Satterwhite anticipates South Carolina teams will be in Alabama and Georgia for at least a month.
Also, chainsaw teams from South Carolina remain in the Fayetteville area of North Carolina, helping with cleanup after tornadoes left 7,200 homes damaged on April 18.
In addition to those states recovering from the tornado outbreak, several states are experiencing severe flooding. Satterwhite predicted disaster relief volunteers will be headed to Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois in the coming days to help with “mud-out” cleanup efforts.
“The amazing thing is, there was damage from Texas to New England, but we [in South Carolina] were basically missed,” Satterwhite said.
Satterwhite praised the staff of the Baptist building for “stepping in” to work at the command center and “taking hours at a time” to help man telephones.
South Carolina Baptists who wish to support the relief effort may do so through the SCBC. “The number one need is money,” Satterwhite said. Donations should be payable to South Carolina Baptist Convention, 190 Stoneridge Dr., Columbia, S.C., 29210. On the memo line of the check, indicate tornado relief and specify for “victims” or “disaster relief” efforts. Donors may also designate their donation for a specific state.
At the SCBC website, donors can also view a list of items being accepted for donation to Alabama tornado victims. Visit www.scbaptist.org and click on “SCBC DR Update.”
– With additional reporting from Baptist Press.