Relief in the Storm
During the recent hurricane, a group of TFC students traveled to provide relief help to those in need. The amateur relief corps was organized at the grassroots level by Sky Barkley. He decided to arrange a group of students that would travel and help with hurricane relief in Wilmington N.C along with the Cajun Navy. Without having any idea about what would lie ahead of them, this group of twenty-two individuals decided to spend their weekend helping with this vision. All they could do was hope for the best but expect the worst. Junior, Jessi Taylor remarked on her feelings leading to the trip, saying: “For some reason, I had no sense of fear going into this trip, until I woke up and could not find my wallet the morning of the trip. I am, however, glad that I decided to trust God and go ahead with the trip as planned. I saw so many miracles that restored my faith in the God of Miracles.”
The group left early that morning and met at the Pointe Church in Toccoa, GA where they picked up supplies that the church had collected specifically for their trip. They then drove into the eye of the storm, and arrived at Peace Baptist Church, where they would be staying at for the next two nights.
The students kept a watch throughout the nights. Two different sets of people rotated every hour, watching the parking lot to ensure that it didn’t flood. The next day they woke up, were assigned their jobs, and left. The majority of the students loaded and unloaded cots, blankets, and pillows and took them to shelters. By the end of the day, the group was feeling like they were just in the way and were not really doing much to help. That all changed after being told that a tornado had been spotted a quarter of a mile away.
As the waters started to rise, the night took a turn for the worse. Houses in the town started to completely flood. Some owners were forced to climb on the top of their roofs, hoping that someone would come and rescue them. The students, partnered with Travis Barkley, Sky’s brother, were the main group that night to run dispatch. They got calls about rescues and started sending people with boats to find them. Many of the people that went on the rescues were out in the storm all night long trying to save as many people as possible. Those they rescued were taken to the church, and then to a shelter for the remainder of the night. The shelters filled up quickly, and they started to leave those that were rescued at the church. The students that weren’t dispatching were comforting people who had just lost everything.
After the eventful night, some students had slept for about 2-3 hours, while others had not slept at all before getting back to work on dispatch the next morning. They continued working to dispatch more people for rescues until they left at 12 pm that day to go back home. Their plan to get home that night was quickly forgotten once they realized just how flooded the roads were. After car trouble, cars getting stuck in water, staying the night in someone’s auto body repair shop, and a two-day car trip, the students finally got home at 1:30 am Monday night.
It was overall a very eventful weekend, and a sad sight to see, but it was a relief to see that so many people had been saved that night. It was later discovered that there were roughly 150 people saved that night. While the night had been rough, it was completely worth it to know that those families were now safe. Freshman, Britney Smith said “I knew the work we were doing was great, but I did not realize just how great. Although we did not have the greatest sleeping situation, I would go again tomorrow if given the chance.”