"We're Blessed to be Alive"

"We're fortunate ... blessed to be alive." Jeff stands on the roadside as Hope Force Founder Jack Minton and Reservist Rene Lako reach out to another home-owner in the town of Toney, Alabama. "Our roof was damaged but beyond that we're OK." Jeff's neighborhood received a direct hit from the April 27 tornado that ripped through Alabama, delivering a blow that made that day the state's worst on record for storm damage and loss of life. Those who live on Jeff's street were the fortunate ones -- just a block over, the scene is very different.

Perhaps a hundred yards away, the homes are nearly destroyed. Driving past one, it's clear to see the whole roof was torn off. The next one is missing the second floor -- one room still defies the odds and hangs out in the open, its walls refusing to collapse. Another home has been dealt a deathly facelift -- the entire front of the home is gone, a once-beautiful interior exposed for the world to see and the elements to ruin. The scene becomes more apocalyptic as the next street is surveyed, the team finds homes leveled to their foundations -- the bricks and wood that once made up the homes strewn across the lawns and the fields as far as the eye can see.

"We're here to help in any way we can," explains Jack Minton as he walks through the mountains of debris that was once this mid-to upper-class neighborhood. "The tornado that struck this area was 130 miles long and stretched from Mississippi to Tennessee. Over the width of approximately one mile, it touched down and hit hard on communities with some of the worst winds that nature can pack -- over 200 mph in some areas. What we can do here is bring our best efforts to bear on mitigating further damage to these homes. Our teams are boarding up broken windows and tarping roofs to keep out rain. Water damage is one of the most serious secondary forms of damage following a storm like this."

Eight people died in this county, several of them in the neighborhood where Hope Force Reservists are working. One elderly man was found huddling in the corner of his garage after the tornadoes had left. "Where's my wife." He kept asking. She was found amongst the debris of another leveled home. "It is heart-breaking to see it up so close," says Jack. "As hard as it may seem to consider re-establishing a norm a week after such a disaster, it is important to find a way to bring back a semblance of routine. Lives have been turned upside down. We're here as Hope Force to aid in bringing a level of comfort, to help the survivors walk through their grief and loss. People need to talk, to share their story. Whether it is a next-door neighbor or one of our chaplains, they need to feel that they have a voice and that someone has an ear to listen -- to validate what they are feeling. Christ set the example for us -- valuing people as individuals."

To date, Hope Force has deployed 45 Reservists and staff members in response to the record number of tornado-affected areas. Another 25 are preparing to deploy and still more are needed.

"Some people can't even bear to come back to their homes," Cherie Minton points out, Co-Founder of HFI. She is hard at work going through debris surrounding what is now a bare slab of a house. Next door the two-story house is still standing, yet public health officials have posted warning signs on the front meant to deter people from entering. It could fall down in a heap of rubble at any time. She points toward the house, "The husband was able to come out and we had a meaningful conversation with him. His wife, however, was too traumatized even to come back and view their home. They've been through a lot and this was just too much for her."

Nearby several Hope Force Reservists are painstakingly sifting through the mountains of debris, serving as the eyes and hands of the home-owners, desperately searching for something meaningful ... something to help the owners restore their sense of normalcy, of history, of family. A Reservist walks by with a small plastic Ziploc bag "Look, I've found his class ring from High School. This is going to mean so much!" Another one pulls out a beautifully-framed basketball jersey, it looks to be someone's prized high school sports memorabilia. Amazingly, the glass hasn't broken. Cherie points to several items that were saved from destruction on the concrete slab where she is working. "I knew it would mean a lot to this man to have his tools preserved, so we have cleaned them and organized them all. Our heart is to find and preserve things that will hold significance for individuals. Over there is a small box of champagne flutes, perfectly preserved. That will be so special for them!"

Hope Force will stay in this community as long as necessary to help bridge the gap between the disaster and the formal rebuilding agencies -- FEMA, insurance agencies, and contractors. This community was fortunate to have had most of its homes fully insured. Other places are not quite so lucky. Smithville, Mississippi is another place Hope Force Reservists are hard at work -- many of its inhabitants were either uninsured or under-insured. It is in communities like this that Hope Force is called to for the long-term. Even now, experienced veterans from the ranks of Reservists are "setting up shop" in Smithville to bring their field experience to bear in support of a protracted recovery effort.