Pictured following a clean-up effort at Elizabeth Barry's residence: (front l-r) Pat Perilloux, Ed Miller, Don Levac, John Bodensteiner; (back l-r) Jim Passe, Dave Witchger, Tom Auel, Bob Bowman, Mike Frantz; (not pictured) Tom Thornton and Marvin Young.

After the first destructive storm in April, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Disaster Respnse Team (DRT) worked at four sites for a total of 60 volunteer hours.  Following the April 25 tornado through May 18, the DRT worked over 540 hours on 30 different sites, some of them in collaboration with the Balboa Baptist Church team.  

While most of the work has been done in the Village itself, the case management requests have come from outside of the Village following the “One Stop Assistance” event, which DRT case managers and one interpreter helped staff.  The case manager coordinator also visited a number of individual households outside the Village to assess damage and evaluate requests for assistance.Also, the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) has asked the Sacred Heart Team to investigate several requests for assistance near Royal, west of
Hot Springs.

There has been a total of 35 Sacred Heart volunteers involved following the disaster.  Several volunteers are using their own equipment (especially chainsaws) at their own expense. Also, a conservative estimate of donated miles by volunteers with personal vehicles easily exceeds 650 miles.

Sacred Heart’s DRT was formed in 2008 following a recommendation by Catholic Charities of the Little Rock Diocese that individual parishes form their own teams to respond to local natural disasters. Although many parishioners had previously helped with disaster recovery efforts near Center Ridge in 2007, the DRT’s primary previous involvement since its formal organization was in Mena following the tornado there in 2009.

Sacred Heart of Jesus’ DRT is directed by John Bodensteiner who is assisted by coordinators Marvin Young (case managers), Ed Miller (clean-up crew), and Ron Albert (financials).  It should be noted that 46 of the 51 clean-up crew members are knights. 

As of May 17, donations totaling $665 had been received by the parish office from grateful homeowners who were assisted by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Disaster Response Team.  

Check out the Photo Gallery on this site to view the DRT in action.