Disaster Recovery Ministries Updates

Local pastors, community & para-Church leaders met Tuesday afternoon to discuss the status of the disaster relief as well look to the future. Here are some status updates from many churches/groups from the last week or so.

Many groups have switched gears from providing 3 meals a day to those affected by the tornado and the volunteers to different roles in the relief. This is a brief summary of what was shared by the Pastors/leaders and is in not a complete picture of everything that has been accomplished or is being accomplished.

Most of these groups/churches continue to aid in some sort of debris removal as well as helping with tarps, etc.

Assembly of God Church- Pastor Ronnie Tilley o
*Has served 400-500 survivors of the disaster non-perishable food items.
*Continues to provide meals for survivors and volunteers.
*Hosting Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse
*Aided in cleaning yards and digging up tree trunks
*Retarped homes and provided long term heavy tarps with webbing
*Planning on leaving May 2nd

Dallas Avenue Baptist Church- Pastor Donnie Edwards
*Housing Mena Middle School 6th grade students
*Housing the American Red Cross Volunteers

Seven Day Adventist- Lavida Whitson
*Overseeing the distribution at Mena Fair Grounds
*Distribution of clothing, furniture, blankets, and clean up kits

Hatfield First Baptist Church
*Aiding farmers with fencing and cleaning of fields

The Crossing Church- Pastor Victor Rowell
*Providing 3 meals a day for prisoners and clean up crews
*Providing OSB and other boarding (tung & groove)

Union Mission Church- Pastor Lewis Martin
*Providing 3 meals a day for prisoners and clean up crews

First Baptist Church- Pastor David McCord
*Feeding volunteers at lunch
*Providing personal care items

First Presbyterian Church- Pete Chambers
*Providing tarping needs

South Side Church of God- Pastor Kenneth Posey
*Hosted God's Pit Crew which provided a drive thru distribution serving over 600 families or more.

Ouchita Baptist Association- Craig Chambers
*Hosting Americorps St. Louis
*Providing storage for distribution items

Americorps St. Louis
*Providing field teams
*Aiding the volunteer check in located in Aalfs parking lot
*Running the Disaster Relief Call Center for volunteers and victims in need of assistance
*Providing door to door visitations to obtain disaster assessments

Mena Lions Club- Darrel Baker
*Providing food, clothing, medical supplies, cooking utensils

American Red Cross- JoAnn Mangione
*Provide assistance to those with major damage or homes destroyed.
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The Pastors and leaders discussed the needs that are present and emphasized the need to get out of the city limits to assess damage and help those in the rural areas. Americorps recruited some churches to help them re-canvas the rural areas affected by the tornado.

The group discussed future ways to help. Some hinged on whether or not FEMA will have a presence in our community.

They decided to follow up with a meeting on Tuesday May 5th at 4 pm at the Dallas Ave Baptist Church Family Life Center.