DUMAS — Rosa Chavez experienced a miracle on Feb. 24.
Like many residents in Dumas, the Catholic woman believes it was God’s protection that allowed two tornadoes to rip through town that Saturday afternoon and no one was killed.
Chavez, who lives with her husband and two children, heard a tornado was approaching her trailer park in the Back Gate community. She and her two children evacuated to her mother’s home next door. Her husband Jorge stayed at home.
“He said he was going to stay,” Chavez, a native of Mexico, said.
After the tornadoes passed, Chavez emerged from her mother’s house to see her trailer and virtually every other trailer torn to pieces. Jorge Chavez only suffered a few scratches.
“Scared, very scared,” Rosa Chavez said of her initial reaction to the disaster.
“When I went outside, it was just depressing, seeing all the houses gone,” she said.
All she has been able to recover from her trailer were “just a few pieces of clothing.”
“It’s been very stressful, but we have gotten a lot of help from the neighbors and different churches,” she said.
The Chavezes were paying off the trailer but did not have any homeowners’ insurance. One of their cars was also destroyed, but it was insured, Chavez said.
“It’s going to be tough,” she said. “Getting help from the government is important. We need it.”
The family attends Holy Child of Jesus Church in Dumas, a community made up of 30 Spanish- and English-speaking families. Pastor Father Phillip Reaves celebrates a bilingual Mass there on Sunday afternoons.
“My faith gives me strength to be able to help my family,” Rosa Chavez said. “It is helping us. We are going to get back on our feet.”
Different agencies and churches have supplied the family with clothes, food and water. What the family really needs is a permanent place to live, Rosa Chavez said. They are living with Chavez’ mother until then.
“I tell my husband, ’Thanks to the Lord, you are alive,’” she said. “With the Lord’s help we can do it.”
The day after the tornado was Sunday and Father Reaves drove 35 miles from his rectory in Monticello to celebrate Mass for the community. No one came.
The church was not damaged but is located near major damage in the town, he said.
“It wasn’t surprising,” he said. “You had to cross police lines and National Guard to get there.”
Eight days after the tornado, March 4, about 30 people attended Mass. About 15 to 30 people attend on an average week, the priest said.
It was a special weekend for one family who had their child baptized.
“Normally I wouldn’t do it during Lent, but for them I made an exception,” he said.
Father Reaves has been speaking with three Hispanic families who attend Holy Child of Jesus and lost their homes. Three other parishioners lived at a local nursing home that was damaged, but he has not been able to locate them.
The priest is also assisting one family who attends St. Luke Church in Warren who lost their trailer in a tornado.
“All of the communities down here (in southeast Arkansas) know how to pitch in,” he said.
“I keep hearing from everyone, ’Look at these homes destroyed’ and just to realize that no lives were lost. That is a miracle. There is nothing left of their homes.”
Don Stephan, plant manager for Federal Mogul, a car parts manufacturer that employees 170 people, said he was able to see the blessings that occurred among the destruction.
A member of St. Mark Church in Monticello, he drove to Dumas the day after the tornadoes. The 10,000-square-foot office of the plant was destroyed, but the company was able to reopen five days later. He said deaths would have occurred at his plant if it were a workday.
“It really was a miracle,” he said. “What I was thinking was, ’What a miracle.’ If there was an employee on site, someone would have been killed.”
With no power or clean water in the city for five days, Stephan said he realized how much society relies on technology and modern conveniences.
“We are one step from the jungle,” he said.
Father Reaves said the initial needs of the families who lost homes in Dumas are being met, but long-term needs are still unknown.
Officials from Catholic Charities of Arkansas and the Daughters of Charity Services of Arkansas began meeting last week to assess the needs in Desha County. A disaster relief and recovery program will be set up at DePaul Health Center for at least two to three months to assist any family in the town of 5,300 who lost their job or home.
Funding for the program will come from a $10,000 grant from Catholic Charities USA, a $25,000 grant from the Daughters of Charity congregation and donations from the March 3-4 diocesan-wide collection.
Catholic Charities USA secured a donation of 500 baby kits, 500 health kits, 200 clean-up kits and 200 school kits to distribute to local residents. Catholic Charities also bought 864 ready meals, also known as “heater meals,” which can be given to the elderly and immigrants who can’t drive to local food pantries.
Sister Mary Lou Stubbs, DC, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas, visited Dumas March 1-3 to tour the disaster areas and help local residents determine what the community needs for long-term recovery. It is reported that 80 homes and trailers were destroyed, 650 jobs were affected and several people were injured. Eighty percent of the business district was destroyed.
The first step was to train as many as 50 volunteers for the disaster recovery team. The volunteers will act as case managers and interview local families who are seeking financial assistance.
The volunteers will be stationed at four local churches and food pantries.
“As people come in for food, they can be assessed for their other needs,” Sister Mary Lou said March 5.
These needs may include rent, gas, utility assistance and household and baby supplies.
During a meeting March 1 at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Gould, Sister Mary Lou led a planning team in identifying major needs, including housing, transportation, medical and pharmacy needs and food.
Having bilingual case managers is also important for the program because a large percentage of those affected were Hispanic. Sister Kathleen Miles, DC, of Star City and Deacon Arnold Hernandez of North Little Rock have been in contact with several families and took them shopping for their immediate needs.
There are several challenges for the residents in the small Delta town. One of the city’s three grocery stores was destroyed. The Fred’s store and pharmacy will be rebuilt but until then residents would have to drive to McGehee to Wal-Mart.
Another challenge is transportation. For families who lost their cars and didn’t have full insurance coverage, there is no taxi or bus service in the county.
Jeanne Richards is the president and CEO of the Daughters of Charity Services of Arkansas, which operates the health clinics in Dumas and Gould.
“One of the problems that has existed down here for a long time is transportation,” Richards said. “Someone will take them and charge them outrageous prices. They have been doing this for years.”
Housing is an overwhelming need, but without a federal disaster declaration there will be no funds or trailers sent to Dumas, Sister Mary Lou said. Even if that occurred, undocumented residents would not be helped.
For the first time in the diocese, Catholic Charities USA sent a staff person to a disaster in Arkansas to assist with the initial plans for recovery. Kim Burgo, a former Catholic Relief Services official who spent four months in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, is now the senior director of the Disaster Response Program for Catholic Charities USA.
On March 1-4 she helped the local team identify “vulnerable populations,” such as the elderly or undocumented workers, and what services the community needs.
“What does Catholic social teaching look like during a disaster?” she asked, “Perhaps you are working with individuals … who were not poor and vulnerable prior to the disaster but because of the disaster they have become poor and vulnerable.”
Richards said there are many people in the community who would like to work with Catholic Charities, which had limited exposure in the community before the tornadoes.
“Because we don’t have a large Catholic population, in the Protestant churches you will find people who would like to participate,” she said.
Richards expressed a concern others would likely have because Catholicism and Catholic Charities are “foreign” words to most residents.
“This is not a predominantly Catholic area,” Richards said. “If there are going to be any restrictions on (the aid) it needs to be announced early on.”
Burgo assured those meeting March 1 that Catholic Charities never discriminates based on age, gender, race or religion.
“It is based on need,” she said. “The meaning of Catholic as universal speaks to what we do … There are no boundaries to what we do.”
