Texans on Mission respond after Gordon tornado

GORDON—When an EF-1 tornado hit Gordon, damaging the community’s only school, canceling classes for the week, and affecting dozens of homes in the area, Texans on Mission assessors were on site the next day.

The following day, chainsaw and temporary roofing teams rolled in to begin helping families recover from the damage.

The Rolling Timbers Disaster Relief chainsaw team began removing a huge tree from the roof and yard of a home, one of an expected 15 families Texans on Mission volunteers have identified for help, said Mark Randall, disaster relief volunteer coordinator for Rolling Timbers.

“The tornado kind of came from the west-northwest, and it kind of crossed town,” Randall said, “Most of the damage is at the football field. It pretty much flattened their equipment room, their weight room and tore up the bleachers.

“There are a lot of trees on the ground, and we’re working on the ones that are on the homes first, so that people can get a temporary roof put on.”

As a Texans on Mission temporary roof crew arrived, a chainsaw crew was “trying to clear the stuff off the roofs, so they can get up there, so the homeowner doesn’t have any more damage than they already have,” Randall said.

“I would say the estimate on the number of jobs, including temporary roof, would be about 15. When it takes two to four hours for each job, that’s quite a bit of work.

“And if you think about that, that’s that many homes and that many people that we get to come in contact with, and that’s what we’re here for.”

The homeowner is a local saddle maker. The volunteer team assessed his home, then went over to his saddle shop to discuss their work and pray with him.

“He said he felt it was unbelievable that we just showed up, but he’s very thrilled that we’re here,” Randall said.

‘We’re going to make it secure’

Across town, Texans on Mission volunteers Gary Emory and Mike Pickel began replacing metal roofing sheets on survivor Sassy Vicchio’s home in preparation for temporary tarping. The two are part of a team that mixed volunteers from Georgetown and Cross Plains.

Emory, a member of First Baptist Church of Georgetown, and Pickel a member of Crestview Baptist Church in Georgetown, were carefully attaching the blown-off panels 15 feet up on the roof. Heat waves already were shimmering in the morning sun.

 “The house has three panels ripped off,” Emory explained. “We’re trying to replace what we can, and then we’re going to make it secure. And then we’re going to come back over it with a tarp to try and keep it dry until they can get permanent panels back up here that are watertight.”

Vicchio looked up to the pair as they were working, grateful for the help.

“This is such a blessing,” she said. “Y’all are a godsend, and I am so thankful right now, because I was devastated and not quite sure what I was going to do.”

She said the family still is recovering emotionally from the storm.

“It was very scary—very loud,” she said. “We heard a lot of tin rattling, and thank God that was it. The house right behind us was destroyed.”

Standing in her front yard, she was surrounded by the effects of the tornado’s violent winds. Tubular framing and roofing from a carport 200 yards away were wrapped in her cottonwood tree and surrounded the house.

Aledo couple serves together to offer hope

Volunteer Tom McMillan, a member of Parker County Cowboy Church in Aledo, is part of the chainsaw relief effort, along with his wife, Lorrie. He said he felt compelled to respond “to help people in need.”

“There’s a lot of people, when something like this happens … they don’t know where to start,” McMillan said. But “we show up,” and suddenly they discover a gleam of hope, he said.

While directing highway traffic around her husband Tommy’s skid steer, Tanya Prosise, a member of Stonewater Church in Granbury said they instantly responded when the call came needing the skid steer to remove debris from homes.

“And I always come with him. I’m part of the package,” she said.

She said she wants Gordon to know others care for them in tough times.

“We have it in our hearts to go and do and help for disaster relief,” she said. “I think they’re overwhelmed with the support. They just can’t believe that people come from other communities to help.”

Texans on Mission show community ‘we care’

Pastor Albert Oliveira of First Baptist Church in Gordon saw the tornado, its after-affects and the response as a potential time for “restoration” in the town.

“I know that for a lot of the victims, it’s scary. It brings a lot of sense of unknown, but it also brings people together,” he said.

Some residents who barely talked to each other before the disaster have called to ask, “Hey, are you OK?” Others who didn’t know each other are now “inside their neighbors’ homes helping them,” Oliveira said.

He said he sees the storm as “an opportunity for the churches to be there and not only preach we’re the hands and feet of Jesus, but be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Texans on Mission is part of the restoration, showing the community “we care,” he said.

“I was talking to somebody earlier in the office about how awesome it is that we have a God that doesn’t just care for the big city, doesn’t just care for the big guys, doesn’t just care for the rich, doesn’t just care for the high-status,” he said.

“But we have a God that will send people like Texans on Mission to take care of this small town without caring if there’s a lot of people to vote, without caring that there’s a lot of people to give recognition, to pay, to make the big news.”

Instead, he noted, Texans on Mission offer the ministry of presence, showing up and saying, “We’re going to serve you guys because you need it, and we’re going to serve because we can.”