Samaritan’s Purse has completed work in Arkansas where an EF-3 tornado ripped a 20-mile destructive path through Jonesboro communities on Saturday, causing damage to hundreds of homes. A number of homes were completely destroyed and 22 people were injured as the city and surrounding neighborhoods took a direct hit. This was one of three tornadoes…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Responding to New Mexico Wildfires
U.S Disaster Relief teams are now in Central New Mexico where multiple wildfires have consumed over 25,000 acres and, sadly, left two people dead. We are focusing our efforts on the town of Ruidoso, located between the Salt and South Fork fires. The latter alone has devastated 17,000 acres and 1,400 structures, over half of…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Volunteers Serving in Storm-Battered Mississippi
Under a cloudless blue sky in Soso, Mississippi, Samaritan’s Purse volunteer Randy Graves crawled over and under downed pine trees searching for valuables. At the request of the homeowners, Graves and other volunteers carefully sorted through strewn belongings. They were on the hunt for photo albums, Bibles, jewelry, and a valuable collection of coins. They…
Edward Graham Encourages New Yorkers After Flooding
Not in 40 years had Dexter Bunte seen such devastation in his community of Highland Falls, New York. Until July 9 the stream that ran by his house was merely a harmless feature adding to the area’s quaint beauty. “It was a babbling brook. My kids used to get excited when it would rise a…
50 Years of Ministry
Rebuilding in Hooper Bay
The 2006 fire that blazed through most of Hooper Bay, Alaska, started in a school and then burned down homes and buildings as wind swept the flames across the community. Dozens of families were left homeless, and the harsh Alaska winter was only weeks away. “We only had two months left in the year that…
Crisis & Disaster Response
A New Home and Strengthened Faith
Instantly, Jacqueline Crump lost everything. A series of more than 30 tornadoes ripped through much of central Mississippi near the end of March, leveling homes and taking 26 lives. Jacqueline’s home in Amory stood helplessly in the way of one of these powerful twisters, an EF3 category tornado with wind speeds upwards of 135 mph.…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Samaritan’s Purse Dedicates Two Mobile Homes in Mississippi
An EF4 tornado zeroed in on John Hatcher’s brick home in Wren, Mississippi, on March 24. John, his wife, Leighlynn, and their two daughters were fast asleep. But the thundering roar of the twister woke John up. He quickly rushed down the hall to protect his children. “I dove in a bedroom at the end…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Tornado Survivors Grateful for God’s Protection
Coella and Manley Tate hid in the bathtub as a tornado hit their Bertie County home of more than 20 years. They prayed for God’s protection and said ‘I love you’ for what they believed would be the last time. The EF-3 tornado ravaged their home at 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 4. Though a similar…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Florida Resident’s Life Transformed After the Storm
On Wednesday, April 12, historic rainfall inundated the Fort Lauderdale area—turning streets into rivers and trapping families within their homes. A 93-year-old resident, Paul Peloquin, was one of the many people with no way to escape. Gerthel E. Smith, Paul’s caregiver, was with him for the duration of the storm. She shared, “It was raining,…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Samaritan’s Purse Responding to Wildfires in California and Oregon
Samaritan’s Purse is responding in California and Oregon as an ongoing rash of deadly fires has engulfed much of the West Coast, killing more than 30 people. Our staff and a Disaster Relief Unit—a tractor trailer filled with relief supplies and equipment—were deployed Sept. 12 from our West Coast Ministry Center in Fullerton, California, to…
