Responding to Tornados in Western Kentucky
Helping Homeowners After Spring Storms Hit Central States
Powerful storms spawning scores of tornadoes ripped across the South and Midwest in early spring, claiming more than 50 lives and damaging countless homes and businesses. Samaritan's Purse quickly deployed to help homeowners in the aftermath of the storms.
During our multi-week response we established eight relief bases across five states where we deployed hundreds of volunteers to assist hurting homeowners with the massive clean up effort.
In partnership with local churches, teams came alongside homeowners to tarp roofs, chainsaw downed trees, clear debris, and search for salvageable items in the wreckage.
“Some houses are reduced to toothpicks,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse. Graham, along with his wife Jane and son Edward, visited Rolling Fork and Silver City, Mississippi, to encourage residents and volunteers on March 29. Pray for those who have lost their homes, businesses—and especially those who lost loved ones in these storms.
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Responding to Tornados in Western Kentucky
Helping Homeowners After Spring Storms Hit Central States
Powerful storms spawning scores of tornadoes ripped across the South and Midwest in early spring, claiming more than 50 lives and damaging countless homes and businesses. Samaritan's Purse quickly deployed to help homeowners in the aftermath of the storms.
During our multi-week response we established eight relief bases across five states where we deployed hundreds of volunteers to assist hurting homeowners with the massive clean up effort.
In partnership with local churches, teams came alongside homeowners to tarp roofs, chainsaw downed trees, clear debris, and search for salvageable items in the wreckage.
“Some houses are reduced to toothpicks,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse. Graham, along with his wife Jane and son Edward, visited Rolling Fork and Silver City, Mississippi, to encourage residents and volunteers on March 29. Pray for those who have lost their homes, businesses—and especially those who lost loved ones in these storms.
Read Our Latest Articles
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More Episodes of On the Ground with Samaritan's Purse
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U.S. Disaster Relief
We respond quickly when natural disasters strike, deploying an army of volunteers to come alongside homeowners to bring relief and compassion in Jesus’ Name. Learn more about our work.
Ready to respond when disaster hits home.
Without fail, disasters will come. Hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and floods strike U.S. communities every year. Samaritan’s Purse U.S. Disaster Relief teams have been ready to respond at a moment’s notice in Jesus’ Name since 1998. We thank God for our local church partners and our volunteers who have made this work in North America possible for more than two decades.
“Samaritan’s Purse is here to help and we’re doing it all in Jesus’ Name. We want every homeowner to know that God loves them and hasn’t forgotten them.”
Volunteers are the key to our relief work in North America. The orange shirts of our volunteers are a welcome sight in areas devastated by violent storms and other natural disasters. Hurting people need men and women like you who are eager to help them and bring the comfort only God can offer.
Help in Jesus' Name
Homeowners Ask ‘Why Are You Helping Us?’
This is a question that Samaritan's Purse staffers and volunteers get in many forms as we roll into communities in the days, sometimes hours, after a disaster hits. It's one of our favorites because the answer is always Jesus.
“As we're serving we have the opportunity to put our arm around them and to share the hope that we have in Jesus. That's why we're here.”
We help in Jesus' Name, and we want hurting people to experience His love and the true hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why our volunteers come from across the country to
- Tarp damaged roofs
- Mud out flooded homes
- Cut and remove fallen trees from yards
- Sift through the ashes of a person’s home
- Repair and rebuild destroyed homes and neighborhoods
Volunteers Helping in Jesus’ Name Across North America
Since 1998, we have helped more than 74,000 families in 39 states. From the western edge of Alaska to Florida’s southernmost coasts, our teams and volunteers are among the first to arrive and the last to leave in the wake of devastation caused by tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and fires. We thank God for a national network of volunteers (222,000 and growing) and faithful ministry partners—including dozens of designated Lighthouse Churches. Our fleet of eight U.S. Disaster Relief units—tractor trailers stocked with supplies and equipment—is strategically positioned at ministry centers around the country and plays a vital role in this work.
“I was left with nothing but the clothes on my back. That was it. But God sent just the right people here to give me my home again.”
Our Operation Heal Our Patriots military couples have also joined our volunteer ranks. Since 2019, our Team Patriot program has deployed these wounded military veterans and their spouses to serve in Jesus' Name alongside our volunteer teams on the frontlines of disasters.
Construction Programs
After disasters strike and long after the attention of news media has moved on, Samaritan's Purse is often still working in communities. In the hardest-hit areas, we help rebuild homes.
So far Samaritan’s Purse and our volunteers have helped rebuild homes for more than 1,900 families. These are houses we’ve either extensively repaired or built from the ground up.
Our rebuild volunteers serve with our staff of experienced foremen and superintendents to construct high-quality homes, built to withstand the strength of future storms. The rebuild program focuses on providing homeowners in some of the hardest hit communities with a place to call home again.
We've been rebuilding American communities since Hurricane Katrina. It's been almost 20 years since the category 5 storm roared ashore in August 2005, killing hundreds of people and flooding New Orleans. Samaritan's Purse volunteers—more than 15,000 of them—stepped in with relief. Then for five more years we stayed in the region, repairing or rebuilding a thousand homes. Our latest rebuild projects focus on areas around Mayfield, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Tennessee, both shattered by powerful tornadoes.
Not long after Katrina hit New Orleans, Samaritan's Purse started rebuilding churches and other structures in Alaska's Native communities, beginning with the fire-devastated village of Hooper Bay. “I was in a short-sleeve shirt and sweating in the Louisiana sun when Franklin Graham called and said ‘I need you to get up to Hooper Bay,’ ” recalls Luther Harrison, vice president of North American Ministries at Samaritan's Purse. Harrison was in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, when the small village of Hooper Bay burned. Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham wanted to help rebuild that small community, a desire that has blossomed into an ongoing construction ministry.
Since 2006, Samaritan's Purse has completed 35 construction projects in Alaska, mostly in remote areas off the road system. The building in Koyuk, completed in 2023, was the 13th church rebuild we have finished.
More Ways to Get Involved
Pray.
Please pray for our volunteers and church partners willing to provide compassionate relief to suffering people in Jesus’ Name.
Volunteer.
When you volunteer with Samaritan's Purse on disasters and rebuilds, you make the work possible.
Give to Disaster Relief.
Samaritan’s Purse provides our services free of charge to help the families that we serve. Your generous support allows us to repair roofs, remove debris, and even rebuild homes from the ground up in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Get Others Involved.
Tell others about our work so they too can volunteer, give, and pray. You can visit samaritanspurse.org/fundraise and find out how to motivate others to join you in making a difference.
Become a Lighthouse Church.
Our church partners are essential to our work in North American communities. When you partner with Samaritan’s Purse as a Lighthouse Church, you serve as a “home base” during a disaster response in your community. Lighthouse churches house volunteers, provide space for our trucks and equipment, and serve as an information hub for the community. Lighthouse churches also can serve by sending volunteer teams on disaster deployments to other areas. For more information on becoming a Lighthouse Church, contact us at lighthousechurch@samaritan.org.
“It’s just so amazing how even through the bad stuff we can come together and serve and see God open doors.”
