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By Joel Washburn and Linda Bolton
washburn@mckenziebanner.com |
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John and Virginia Cole and their son, Alan, are heading
south this week as part of the Tennessee Baptist
Disaster Relief team to assist hurricane victims in
the storm-ravaged areas. The Huntingdon family has
been involved in mission work for some time and is
experienced in disaster recovery work, both
domestically and abroad.
Speaking from her home Friday, Virginia said the
family would be leaving Monday or Tuesday to go to one
of the sites along the gulf coast or Florida.
Virginia will be working in a command trailer,
organizing volunteers. She said John and Alan will be
assigned upon arrival, however, John usually does
maintenance on equipment or operates chain saws.
She said some of the operations of the Tennessee
Baptist Disaster Relief team include operating chain
saws and completing "mud out," which involves clearing
out mud and debris from a damaged home, taking out the
walls and removing insulation. After the
walls have dried out, workers go back in and replace
walls and insulation.
Tennessee Baptist also operates a feeding unit for
disaster victims, she said.
"We cook all the meals and place them in individual
containers for distribution. The Red Cross then
delivers the meals by trucks to the needed areas,"
said Virginia.
While on site, the Cole family sleeps in sleeping bags
or on cots in churches, schools or community centers.
They expect to be in the mission field for
approximately one month.
Dana-Plumley Employees Assist Florida Division
Workers from the Paris, Tennessee Dana-Plumley Company
are in Pensacola, Florida helping a sister company get
back in production after recent hurricane damage to
the facility. Thirty-seven workers from Paris,
including engineer Chris Cook of McKenzie, traveled to
Dana's Pensacola plant on Friday. The division makes
brake linings for Ford.
Cook's dad, Don, said the group rented a truck from
Ralph Wiles in Paris. The Paris group took food for
workers to eat and shower facilities while at the
plant. The group has prepared meals of hamburgers and
hot dogs for the workers, some of whom never the leave
the factory.
The biggest issue to get operational was electricity.
A semi-size generator was brought in to power the
plant. Production has restarted and the parts are
being airlifted from the facility. The group plans to
stay in Pensacola for the remainder of this week.
Hurricane Victims Seek Lodging Here
Best Western motels in both McKenzie and Huntingdon
have experienced increased business in recent days as
residents of southern states fled their homelands to
escape the ravages of Hurricane Ivan.
Shannon Sanders, desk clerk at Best Western, McKenzie,
said they had as guests last week one family from
Florida, one family from Alabama, two families from
Louisiana and three families from Mississippi.
"They all received calls saying it was OK to return
home and they have left," she said Friday. She noted
their stays averaged between one and four days.
A representative from Best Western-Huntingdon stated
they had a number of reservations last week from the
hurricane states.
"We were overbooked at one point and then the
cancellations starting coming in because people were
caught in traffic jams and just couldn't get this
far," she said.
On Friday, she said one couple from Alabama, who had
sought refuge from the storm, was still at the motel.
"They planned to leave today (Friday), but made a call
and learned they could not yet return home," she said.
