ATKINS — The parish hall at Assumption Church in Atkins has been busier since a tornado swept through the southeast part of town Feb. 5, killing four people and damaging and destroying more than 100 homes and businesses.
Located near city hall, the fire station and police station, the prominent church on Main Street is a convenient place to serve a community in need.
On the next day, Ash Wednesday, pastor Father Ernest Hardesty opened the doors of McKee Hall to feed firemen, policemen and other relief workers for lunch and dinner.
On Feb. 9 the parish’s annual Valentine’s roast beef dinner became a fundraiser for the relief efforts as well as a hot meal for victims. At least 200 people were served, raising about $2,000 for victims.
“It is from the heart,” said dinner organizer Jan Cummings, who oversaw volunteers peeling more than 100 pounds of potatoes. “This year our Valentine’s dinner is coming straight from the heart.”
Two days later the Federal Emergency Management Agency took over McKee Hall as the official Pope County Disaster Recovery Center. The center will be open seven days a week to allow residents to register with FEMA for assistance and get help from state agencies and charities.
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On Feb. 12 First Lady Laura Bush was scheduled to arrive in Atkins by helicopter, which was to land on the church’s parking lot, but the visit to Arkansas and Kentucky was cancelled because of winter weather.
Father Hardesty said he witnessed “three miles of destruction,” but the church was about half a mile from the tornado and was not damaged.
“It’s pretty big destruction, considering it hit the rural part of the city,” he said. “It was on the edge of the city, some of it’s pretty rural. There are lots of open fields … I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Similar destruction was reported from Yell County in west central Arkansas to Sharp County in northeast Arkansas. The same EF4 tornado traveled 123 miles across the state. A second tornado took a 14-mile-path across Marion and Baxter counties.
At least 13 mostly rural countries were affected.
According to Greg Standish of Catholic Mutual Group, no parishes or schools in the Diocese of Little Rock reported tornado damage, but several buildings were damaged by high winds.
The Atkins parish is not the only church activating parishioners to aid victims of two of the state’s worst tornadoes, killing 13 people. Churches in Clinton, Fairfield Bay and Heber Springs in north central Arkansas, and Mountain Home, Mountain View, Horseshoe Bend and Cherokee Village in northern Arkansas are organizing relief efforts to help people in their areas.
Catholic Charities of Arkansas will be overseeing the diocese’s recovery efforts. Volunteer parish teams will be trained to do case management and assist people with their needs. The training will be handled by the employees of diocese’s Hurricane Recovery Office, which operates similar teams to assist victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
A collection during Masses Feb. 9-10 will be distributed to parish teams in those cities to fund long-term recovery. A grant of $10,000 from Catholic Charities USA will also be divided among the teams, said Sister Mary Lou Stubbs, DC, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” she said, adding the teams would likely operate for at least a year.
Two families’ stories
William and Cindy Ehemann, members of Assumption Church in Atkins, arrived home from their jobs around 4:50 p.m. Feb. 5 and soon learned that a tornado was heading toward Pope County. They gathered their three cats and two dogs and hid in the master bedroom walk-in closet.
“William said he felt like Jesus was holding him down,” Cindy Ehemann said.
When they opened the closet door, the roof and one cat were missing.
The tornado tore the roof completely off their home and destroyed William Ehemann’s workshop where he operates his construction business.
“I feel like we have been blessed,” Cindy Ehemann said. “We are not as much of a victim (as others were).”
The brick walls on the home were not damaged and most of the artwork, including several images of Mary and Jesus, still hung on the walls.
Father Hardesty visited the Ehemanns several times to offer his assistance. On Feb. 9 the priest brought seven college students and two adults from St. Leo University Parish in Russellville where he also serves as pastor. The volunteers cleaned up a portion of the couple’s 40 acres and also helped pack up boxes of household items. When the students were taking apart the couple’s bed, they discovered the missing pet under the bed. The cat was traumatized but not harmed.
“It has been tested,” Cindy Ehemann said of her faith. “I’m trying to get in good spirits. To me, I’m just thankful I am alive. All of this stuff can be replaced.”
For now the Ehemanns are living nearby in a brother’s home until the insurance company decides whether the home can be repaired.
“You don’t know people care until something like this,” said Catherine Hendron of Russellville, Cindy Ehemann’s mother.
Al Hettel agrees with Hendron.
“I found out that people are a lot better than you think they are,” he said.
Hettel and his wife Kay, also members of Assumption Church, live in one of the hardest-hit areas of Atkins. Three of their next-door neighbors died in the storm.
A neighbor encouraged them to seek shelter in another neighbor’s storm shelter.
“Boy, it’s a good thing we did,” Al Hettel said. “Fifteen minutes later, everything came apart.”
About 24 hours after the storm, the Hettels joined other Atkins Catholics for Mass on Ash Wednesday.
“We really had something to be grateful for,” Al Hettel said.
Marlo Magers, parish council president, said he has witnessed the community and others around the state rally around Atkins. He said a man was passing through town Feb. 8 and stopped at the church.
“He just handed me three $100 bills,” he said. “It’s just unbelievable that somebody would do that. … I’ve seen more good in this. People are helping people. It doesn’t matter about creed, or color or anything.”
Listening in Clinton
Father Bill Elser, pastor of St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Clinton, said he and his parishioners also have been assisting wherever they are needed in Van Buren County. The priest, who lives in Fairfield Bay, has been able to help a few parishioners with food and household items. Some condos in Fairfield Bay are vacant and might be available for temporary housing, he said. One extended family is living in a bedroom in the parish’s education building.
On Sunday, the priest went to the community of Culpepper south of Clinton and knocked on doors to notify them that assistance was available at the local fire station.
“They were very humbled,” he said. “I basically just listened. It is just going to be day to day for them.”
North Arkansas recovery
Brigid Ryan, northeast regional case manager for Catholic Charities of Arkansas’ Hurricane Recovery Office, will coordinate the long-term recovery programs for tornado victims in north Arkansas.
“Our focus is in the recovery efforts after the emergency services have been provided,” she said. “When the (American) Red Cross leaves, there’s still going to be many homeless families with many, many needs and really a lack of services available to provide those needs.”
That is where Catholic Charities comes in.
“Because of the hurricanes, we already have teams up here trained and ready for service in action,” she said.
These parish teams are at St. Michael, Cherokee Village, St. Peter the Fisherman, Mountain Home and St. Albert, Heber Springs.
She said her goal is to train additional teams at St. Mary, Mountain View, St. Jude, Clinton, St. Francis of Assisi, Fairfield Bay and St. Mary of the Mount, Horseshoe Bend.
Ryan visited tornado damaged areas in Mountain View, Highland and Ash Flat and was working with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a social outreach ministry at both St. Michael in Cherokee Village and St. Peter the Fisherman in Mountain Home.
Ryan said she recruited 14 volunteers from St. Michael and St. Peter the Fisherman parishes to cook and serve breakfast at the Ash Flat Church of Christ Feb. 9.
Once FEMA and the counties complete their damage assessments, she said, they would let her know where Catholic Charities is most needed.
Much of the service provided by the parish teams would be listening to victims’ stories, she said. “People need to be able to talk out that trauma.”
The biggest need will be financial assistance because there will be a lot of out-of-pocket expenses in the short-term, she said.
“We’re such a middle-class working community, many people in these areas were living paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “There’s going to be so much financial assistance needed to get these people back in houses.”
Cherokee Village and Horseshoe Bend: ’Like a war zone’
Ryan was to meet with the parish team in Cherokee Village Feb. 12. Dick LeMere, parish life coordinator at St. Mary of the Mount, was also expected to attend to discuss training a team for his parish to primarily assist tornado victims in Zion, a community in Izard County that has been overlooked.
LeMere said the area of Zion is poor and rural. He estimated about 300 people live across the region. From Feb. 9-11, his parish collected clothing, nonperishable food, baby items and blankets for Zion.
“We contacted our county seat in Melbourne and they said that the only thing left in Zion was the Baptist church and that church was overflowing with clothing and food items,” he said.
As a result, he and Knights of Columbus members from his parish delivered three truckloads of donations to the Izard County Fairgrounds in Melbourne.
His parish also held a fundraiser through First National Bank at the Horseshoe Bend branch, which was the central receiving place for all donations given in that area.
“It’s just a holding point until they can decide where to allocate it and where it’s needed most,” he said. His parish designated its donation to go to Izard County, particularly Zion.
“It looked like a war zone,” he said of the tornado damage in Zion. “The homes are not all centrally located; they are dispersed in that area. We would see some homes that had as little as shingles off and then we saw structures that looked like they had been blown apart.
“There was debris scattered for hundreds of yards around. Everywhere we went there were steel roofing and siding that were wrapped around trees and buildings,” he said. “It was total devastation.”
Mountain View: ’Checking in’
Tee Curry, a parishioner at St. Mary Church, served meals at the United Methodist church in Mountain View Feb. 9. It was her second day in a row to do so.
She said the church was serving three meals a day for tornado victims as well as volunteers who had come to help. It was also serving as a shelter. At the time, the church was running on a generator because electricity had not yet been restored to Stone County’s 5,000 residents. Nor did they have safe drinking water. For this reason, many businesses were still closed.
In a Feb. 12 phone interview, Loreena Hegenbart, director of religious education at St. Mary Church, said electricity was restored for most of the county’s residents by Feb. 11. That was a blessing considering that the county was hit with an ice storm that same night.
Since the tornado, Hegenbart said she and her family had taken in two elderly residents from area retirement homes. Hegenbart’s home has a fireplace that heated the house and they also have a generator which provided electricity until it was restored.
“Everybody’s checking on everybody,” Curry said of the close-knit Mountain View community. Though her house was not destroyed, Curry said she was staying with a neighbor who had a wood stove for heating and cooking.
FEMA opened its first temporary assistance center in the state in Mountain View Feb. 9. Curry said the agency was expected to provide 1,000 meals at the Methodist church Feb. 10.
Mountain Home team activated
Ryan said she planned to meet with the St. Peter the Fisherman Church parish team in Mountain Home Feb. 19 to keep them informed of the latest updates with FEMA applications for assistance.
She said the parish training is very important “because you don’t want to mess this up” for the tornado victims, she said.
Funeral services for Betty Cora Fischer, 77, a Catholic in Gassville, were held Feb. 10 at Kirby and Family Funeral Home Chapel with Deacon Richard Linstad of St. Peter the Fisherman Church officiating. Fischer died in the tornado that hit her home southwest of Mountain Home. She is survived by her husband, Ed Fischer, one son, Gerald Fischer of Russellville, five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Tara Little contributed to this article.
How you can help
Catholic Charities of Arkansas is working with several state and charitable organizations to provide relief and recovery to victims of the Feb. 5 tornadoes.
Parishes across the diocese were asked to take up a collection during Masses Feb. 9-10 for the diocese’s disaster relief fund. Additional monetary donations can be mailed to Disaster Relief Fund, Catholic Charities of Arkansas, P.O. Box 7565, Little Rock, AR 72217-7565.
“Catholic Charities of Arkansas has a well-established history of providing long-term recovery assistance in the aftermath of some of the state’s most destructive tornadoes,” said Sister Mary Lou Stubbs, DC, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas.
At this time, the diocese is not coordinating the collection of food, clothing or other donations. Sister Mary Lou said Catholics are encouraged to call the United Way at (866) 580-4567 or a local parish disaster relief team to volunteer their time. Food donations should be made through a local food bank or by calling (501) 399-9999.
