Dear Cutters for Christ, Asbury UMC, and RUMC Disaster Response Ministry Members and Friends of the Ministry,

Buddy Williams, one of our Cutters for Christ coalition disaster response ministry coordinators, received a call at 6:30 AM this past Tuesday morning.  He was asked if CFC could field a team and report to Kimberly, Alabama, which had been hit by an EF-1 tornado just 8-1/2 hours earlier, as soon as possible to assist the first responders and homeowners there.  The Kimberly Church of God had been destroyed and the town’s fire station had been uprooted from its foundation and redeposited in Stouts Road.  Property owners in the path of the tornado lost roofs, had uprooted trees come crashing through their homes, and trees anywhere near the path of the tornado were snapped off and dropped pick-up-sticks style in yards and across roadways.

We were able to pull together a team of 5 CFC members that morning who could break from their prior commitments and move quickly to assist the fire, police and utility companies there in beginning to clear away debris. They were in Kimberly, ready to work, by 9 AM.  6 CFC members reported for work in Kimberly on Wednesday, 7 on Thursday and 8 on Friday.  Yesterday, one CFC team member, Henry Averyt, even drove to the North Alabama Conference United Methodist Church Disaster Response Warehouse in Decatur, Alabama to retrieve needed supplies for distribution to the residents of Kimberly.

After 4 consecutive days of work in Kimberly our CFC teams and the others assisting this community immediately after the tragedy had cleared so much debris that the authorities are considering asking us not even to return again until the mounding debris piles that have been formed at the curbsides all around town have been picked up and cleared.  That assessment will be officially made sometime on Monday. 

Here are just a few images from Kimberly and the work our CFC teams have helped perform there this week:

We'll be moving more into the relief phase of our disaster response ministry work beginning next week, whether that be in Kimberly or in some other community.  Moving from the first responder phase into the disaster relief phase, our teams will be open for others interested in volunteering to help homeowners begin to rebuild their lives.  Please check your calendars and consider joining a team next week.  As soon as we learn where our services may most be needed, we'll alert you and let you know where and when we'll be deploying.  Our plans are to work Tuesday through Friday next week, so please check your email on Monday evening to see where we'll be.  We sincerely hope that your schedule will allow you to join in this phase of disaster response.

Come serve our neighbors who may be suffering as victims of this most recent tornado disaster.  Help give them the strength to become survivors of this severe weather event by sharing the joy of Christ with them!

In His Service,
Bob T.

RUMC Disaster Response Ministry Coordinator

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Robert P. (Bob) Thompson
250 Trace Ridge Road
Hoover, Alabama 35244-3924
Cellphone: 205.276.3030