Response to the Tornado in Millbury, Ohio by the Ohio Disaster Relief Chainsaw Team

The Webster Dictionary describes a log as two different things, both of which relate to this story. The first definition describes a log as a large section of a tree trunk or large branch of a felled tree, either in its natural state or cut up for use. The second definition describes logged the following way, “to enter or record a log.” The following log begins with a call for help and represents the SCBO Chainsaw Team’s response to the Tornado which hit Northwest Ohio.

DAY 1: Steve Long, Northwest Baptist Association Area Director of Missions, contacted Sam Kelley, SCBO Disaster Relief Coordinator about 6:15 p.m. on Sunday, June 6, concerning tornado damage in the greater Toledo area, more specifically, Millbury.  After a couple of calls to the president of the Ohio Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) and the Ohio Disaster Relief Chainsaw Coordinator, Dale Patterson. Kelley informed Steve that the Chainsaw Team would be en-route to the area on Monday afternoon. Steve coordinated housing and meals for the team in the First Baptist Church of Perrysburg. Dave Snyder, West Central Baptist Association Area Missionary, provided a shower unit for the team, which also arrived on Monday evening.

Patterson and his team worked with the local authorities to identify worksites which fit into the ministry mission of the chainsaw team (private residences with downed trees).  The following summary of the daily reports made by team Off-site Coordinator, Nick Freeman, describes some of the ministry work performed.     

DAY 2:  We had ten DR volunteers today with three leaving at the end of the day.  Tomorrow is uncertain. As of this moment we do not have a job to start the day. If none develops we will close down and return home. If anyone has plans to join us tomorrow, you may not have work to do.

DAY 3: We finished the second job we started yesterday. It was a big one! This was a farmstead that had been in the family for two generations. The widowed mom and grandma of the family was in the farmhouse with a teenager of the family when the EF3 tornado hit the house at 11:15 pm Saturday evening June 5, lifting the roof off the house, splitting the house in two and moving it 30 feet off the foundation. They both lived through it and spent only two days in the hospital. A son-in-law described his mother-in-law as a "tough old bird". Her only comment was she was glad her deceased husband wasn't alive to see all the damage that had been done to their farm. 

Debris was scattered over all of the farm fields, not only from their farm, but from the high school about a mile away and numerous other businesses and homes. These were all in the seven mile, 300-yard wide path of the tornado that hit and skipped all along the way destroying some houses and leaving others untouched. An amazing sight developed yesterday as we worked on the 15 mature trees around this home and barn. There were over 100 people that converged on this and neighboring farms, walking fields and picking up debris that was scattered from fence row to fence row, piling the debris on trailers pulled by ATV's and then hauling it to the roadside to be taken away.  This family would not have been able to plant or harvest their fiel

ds until the debris was removed. There is still a mangled car down the road from the farm that no one has been able to identify or determine from where it came.

DAY 4: The chainsaw team concluded day three (Thursday) with two more jobs completed for a total of four this week. We had seven DR volunteers today. One volunteer went home this evening leaving us 6 volunteers for tomorrow. Again we don’t know from one job to the next if there will be another job to follow. That has been frustrating, but it is amazing to see God make appointments. Both jobs today gave us an opportunity to witness and share the gospel. As we told the victims, none of us knew we would cross paths today but

God did and it was all a part of his plan. 

We will see what happens tomorrow when we travel to Delta, Ohio in Fulton County to follow up on reported needs for chainsaw workers in that area as a result of the same storm. 

DAY 5: The work in Delta was handled by other volunteer groups.

The final analysis: We completed 5 jobs. All of them were extremely large and difficult. We would like to have done more but simply ran out of strength and chainsaw operators. Seeds were planted. We leave the rest up to the Lord.