Conference Disaster Response Team assessing storm damage and volunteer needs

The North Alabama Conference Disaster Response Team is working with District Offices and assessing damage from the storms that passed through the North Alabama Conference area in the early hours of Monday, January 23, 2012. North Alabama Conference Director of Mission and Advocacy Rev. Matt Lacey shared this message earlier today in an email to the Disaster Response Update email list. Our prayers go out to all those affected by last night's storms as lives were lost and homes and...

Pastor shares testimony of early response efforts

Rev. Mike Butler is the pastor at Fairview UMC in Cullman. He also serves as the Volunteer Coordinator for Central District Disaster Recovery, coordinating UMCOR volunteers working through the North Alabama Conference in the Northern Walker County area, as well as assisting with the Walker County Long Term Recovery Committee. He sent the following email in May to pastors and partners to inform them of early response efforts in the North Alabama Conference and in his area. We...

Restore Sipsey cooperative to host dedication for completed homes

On Sunday, November 13, Restore Sipsey will celebrate the completion of two rebuilt homes with a dedication for the homeowners.   The town of Sipsey lies in the heart of Walker County and grew from a coal mining community. A town of approximately 160 households, it is plagued by high unemployment.   In April 2011, Sipsey received a direct hit from an EF-4 tornado, which destroyed 65 homes.   Dr. Donnie Cantley, a member of Riverchase UMC, visited Sipsey in early May and...

The Power of Connection

As coordinator of Disaster Recovery for the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, I could write any number of stories of survival and heroism during the April 27 tornado outbreak in Alabama.   It has been an amazing time of strength and courage on the part of the people of Alabama.  As a United Methodist clergyperson who has a unique perspective on this tragedy, it has been the power of our United Methodist connectional system that has been so impressive to...

Partnership with locally organized volunteers allows greater impact in Pleasant Grove

The town of Pleasant Grove was hit by an EF-4 tornado on the afternoon of April 27, 2011, damaging or destroying an estimated 2,500 homes. The tornado sustained winds of 190 miles per hour and traveled nearly 81 miles with a path 1.5 miles wide. Much work is needed to rebuild Pleasant Grove. A volunteer effort called the Locally Organized Volunteer Effort was formed to begin the work of recovery in Pleasant Grove (LOVE) under the leadership of Gorden Thomason, a member of Oak...

Six months later, rebuilding in full swing in North Alabama due to the help of gracious volunteers

Over the years, the North Alabama Conference Disaster Response Team had trained, prepared and responded to disasters such as tornadoes. Team members were ready to respond and a Disaster Response Plan was in place. However, no plan could anticipate 62 tornadoes in one day.  Yet from the first moments after each storm, United Methodists were in action. During the first few weeks following April 27 storms, more than 70 early response teams from in-state and out-of-state immediately...

Guin storm survivors receive assistance from college students on alternative fall break

The Harris family relocated to the town of Guin earlier this summer after tragedy struck their family. They thought they had survived the April 27 storms with no damage, only debris in the yard and loss of electricity. Two days later when electricity was restored, a power surge ignited a fire, which destroyed their home. All five family members survived, but not without injury. Lily, the nine-year-old granddaughter of Tim and Belinda Harris, suffered severe third degree burns on 75...

Huntsville youth minister puts eccentric pastime to use for storm survivors in Tuscaloosa and Phil Campbell

What does an ultrarunner do to help survivors in the event of an epic tornado outbreak in his home state? In the case of one Huntsvillian, he trains to run the length of the state. John Nevels, full-time engineer and part-time youth minister at Holmes Street UMC in Huntsville, will run 454 miles from Gulf Shores to Ardmore in ten days, beginning October 22, 2011. The epic run, entitled the Alabama Relief Run, will highlight Tuscaloosa, Hackleburg, Phil Campbell, Moulton and Harvest – all...

Hulaco local pastor watches lives change during rebuilding from April storms

With a Management in Information Systems degree in one pocket and a background in construction, Rev. Keith Monk began his career as a part-time local pastor with Pleasant Grove UMC in Hulaco, Ala., on Easter Sunday in 2010. To focus on his ministry, he left his construction business behind. On April 27, 2011, the sparsely populated town of Hulaco was struck by an EF-4 tornado with a path one-mile wide with sustained winds of 190 miles per hour. The storm left a trail nearly 47 miles long from...

Significant UMCOR grant will help North Alabama Disaster Recovery make a difference in many lives

Immediately following the work of early response teams, the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church installed a Disaster Recovery Team to enable families with financial difficulties to rebuild their homes to a safe and secure status from the disaster of the April 27 tornadoes. In order to assist the work already in motion, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Board of Directors approved a two-year $1 million recovery grant for the Conference’s efforts. The $1...

UMCOR gives $1 million for Alabama tornadoes

At the end of April, Alabama residents were stunned by a record 62 tornadoes that killed 250 people and left homes, businesses and municipalities in tatters. All but two of those tornados touched down somewhere in the United Methodist North Alabama Annual (regional) Conference. This week, directors of the United Methodist Committee on Relief approved a $1 million grant to that conference to assist in the state’s recovery.funds had been low earlier in the year, particularly for U.S....

Teams from neighboring states collaborate in Tuscaloosa for Disaster Recovery

Teams from states surrounding the State of Alabama have been traveling to Tuscaloosa to assist the Southwest District Disaster Recovery Team’s work in the neighborhood of Forest Lake. For one resident, these teams have made a world of difference beyond what they ever imagined. The teams worked on the home of Ms. Betty Lake, who in the span of two years lost her brother, her husband and fell victim to the tornado. Since her husband’s death, she has been unable to afford the...

Knoxville area scouts aid Alabama tornado victims

Boy Scouts of America Troop 506 (chartered through Christ United Methodist Church in Halls, Tenn.) went to Pleasant Grove, Ala. in May to help with the clean-up after the EF-4 tornado decimated that area. The trip was organized through Mike Linholm at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church, which was converted to a tornado relief site shortly after the storm. Classrooms were used as bedrooms to provide shelter for as many victims as possible. The tornado devastated that area. Many of the...

Forest Lake Community Block Party emphasizes spirit of togetherness towards rebuilding

On a late summer Sunday evening, nearly 500 community members gathered on the campus of Forest Lake United Methodist Church (FLUM), where just four months earlier, the same neighborhood watched as a tornado devastated the area. The Forest Lake Block Party focused on bringing the community back together to mingle and to celebrate first responders from the April 27 tornado. The Forest Lake Block Party emphasized messages of encouragement to FLUM members, members of other congregations, its...

Austrian mission congregation contributes to North Alabama tornado recovery

The English-Speaking United Methodist Church (ESUMC) of Vienna, Austria, is a vibrant urban ministry situated amidst that city's most dense immigrant population in possibly the country's poorest district. The ESUMC congregation is includes individuals from approximately 40 countries. The members of this multi-national, multi-cultural group bring with them not only a common language (English) but a broad spectrum of Christian traditions and a sincere desire to serve and worship Jesus Christ....

National Seminar participants donate school supplies to young storm survivors

Each August, parents and students rush through local stores to buy pencils, crayons, rulers and notebooks for the upcoming school year. For many families in the Birmingham metropolitan area, this is a daunting task and the cost must come out of the expense budget for home repairs after the April 27 storms. The opportunity to collect school supplies for young storm survivors provided a unique project for the United Methodist Women’s National Seminar, being held in Birmingham, Ala., August...

Northeastern Pennsylvania team travels to Tuscaloosa, uses unconventional tools for rebuilding

In early August, the heat rose in Tuscaloosa as team members from Central United Methodist Church in Honesdale, Pa. worked relentlessly on a home ravaged by the April 27 tornado. But never in the team’s wildest dreams did they imagine employing the church van’s emergency snow shovel in their everyday on site work in 100 degree weather. Central UMC’s team worked on Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Lee’s home in Alberta City. The home is still in semi-demolition mode, in preparation...

Mentors, Students Encourage Service Over Self

Five eager students lined a hallway of the United Methodist Center on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College. Each is a rising senior, and a protégé of the Mentors Project of Bibb County in Macon, Ga. The purpose of their trip was to work in tornado-stricken areas of Birmingham. The Mentors Project concentrated their efforts in Sipsey, Ala., where an EF-4 tornado hit and damaged 65 homes. More than 50 families were left homeless. The Mentors Project team focused on debris...

Camp Coker Open to Host Disaster Recovery Volunteers

Coker UMC Transformed a Family Life Center into the Hub for Recovery for the Southwest District of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church Tuscaloosa County’s storm recovery efforts will begin once the 90-day building moratorium lifts, and Coker UMC prepared in the best way possible: Camp Coker. Coker UMC and the Southwest District of the North Alabama Conference of the UMC transformed the church's Family Life Center into Camp Coker, a housing facility for...

Conference establishes Long-term Disaster Recovery Team to lead storm recovery for the long haul

In light of the tragedy of the April 27 tornadoes and the unmet needs of the communities affected, the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church has formed a long-term Disaster Recovery Team. The team will be responsible for training and management of volunteer teams to the area and oversight of rebuilding in the areas served by North Alabama Conference churches. Bishop William H. Willimon and the Cabinet announced the appointment of Rev. Nancy Cole to the position of Conference...