Nashville Tornado: Week One-On the Ground

WEEK ONE-LIVE UPDATE

WEEK ONE UPDATE:

Over the past weekend, our Inspiritus Disaster Response teams coordinated nearly all of the spontaneous volunteers who showed up to help in Mount Juliet, leading over 1,500 volunteers on Saturday alone!

Emergency officials in Cookeville were overwhelmed by the level of destruction they endured. They had to turn away over 4,000 volunteers until they partnered with us this weekend. We were able to offer the city quick training and free use of our disaster leadership team in Cookeville, to help.

Together with these local city heroes, we helped coordinate over 2,800 volunteers pouring in from all over the country!

In the North Nashville/Germantown community, our MyCanvas art therapy program empowered youth impacted by the storms to process through their experiences and begin to heal. Each day after the tornado, local Lutheran church partners volunteered and generously provided hot cooked meals to local residents and responders, warming many hearts during this dark time.

As we enter week two of our tornado response, we wanted to share our latest information and action steps:    

WHAT WE ARE DOING:

NORTH NASHVILLE / GERMANTOWN 

- Food Box Distribution Site for residents in this hard-hit area

NASHVILLE AREA

- Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping

- Volunteer coordination support

- Long-Term recovery planning

COOKEVILLE

- Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping

- Volunteer coordination support

- Long-Term recovery planning

THE NEED:

North Nashville / Germantown - Direct hit to homes and businesses; Growing concern about the need for hunger relief for families without power, especially low income or disabled families and children living in the area or families taking shelter in local facilities.

Nashville Area/Mt. Juliet - Initial surveys indicated EF-3 tornado damage in East Nashville, Nashville Donelson's neighborhood and in Mt. Juliet, a town about 20 minutes east of Nashville, the National Weather Service said. Communities inside and outside of metro Nashville were devastated. Local Emergency Management needs support coordinating volunteer and non-profit agency responders seeking to help with debris removal.

Cookeville - Putnam County emergency officials confirmed 18 of the 24 Nashville tornado fatalities occurred in this one community. Local Emergency Management needs support coordinating volunteer and non-profit agency responders seeking to help with debris removal.

HOW TO HELP:

Donate: click here  

Volunteer: click here  

Mail: Gift Cards & Checks

We need gift cards and financial donations, desperately:

• Home Depot and Lowe's cards: for home repair work and debris removal tools

• Gas cards: to get volunteer teams to and from the disaster sites where homeowners are in need

• VISA cards: for clients who have extreme financial needs for survival, and for disaster work supplies

• WalMart cards: to feed volunteer teams, and for clients with extreme financial needs for survival (ex. Pharmacy medications, baby supplies, etc.)

Gift Cards & Checks can be mailed to:

Inspiritus 

Attn: Disaster Response 

P.O. Box 60597 

Nashville, TN 37206

We're so fortunate and grateful to be working closely with our local community partners, especially the SE Synod of the ELCA and Lutheran Disaster Response. As we enter week two, we continue to need your support to keep our teams on the ground and well-equipped to make a difference.

Please consider making a donation, sending us Home Depot and Lowe’s gift cards, hosting a fundraiser on social media, or even signing up to volunteer in the weeks ahead.

To donate, click here and select Nashville 2020 Tornado.

Blessings to all our friends and family in Nashville! 

-Virginia Spencer

Vice President of Development

Inspiritus

Nashville Tornado: Day Four-On The Ground

LIVE UPDATES FROM THE GROUND

Nashville Area DISASTER RESPONSE: Mount Juliet, TN: Today, our Inspiritus Nashville team is leading 40 volunteers in providing debris removal. The devastation to this community is extensive. Inspiritus Disaster staff member (and Cookeville native) Kevin Burgess, is in Cookeville, TN, where he is working to setup a second operation base, now.

MyCanvas Art Therapy Program

North Nashville Our MyCanvas art therapy program is empowering children & youth in North Nashville to process the trauma of the Nashville Tornado that hit their neighborhood. They are working through a “Transforming Destruction” art project, converting debris found on their street into a Rising Phoenix art structure.

As we enter day four of our tornado response, we wanted to share our latest information and action steps:    

We presently have six AmeriCorps members, one team leader and many volunteers on base under the leadership of Sherry Buresh (our Director of Response), Sabrina More (our Volunteer Manager) and Sue Glassnor. Mike Buresh, former Director of a National and International Disaster Organization, will train and lead in our chainsaw teams. Kevin Burgess (our Construction Manager) is a Cookeville native and he's in his hometown now working to coordinate another Inspiritus operation to help there. We've seen a steady stream of volunteers, but we need more. To volunteer, sign up here

NEW PARTNERSHIPS:

• AirLinks is providing free flights for our leads.

• IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) has asked to partner. Two of them will arrive today, and an additional one on Saturday.

• St. Bernard Project (SBP), a Mississippi based organization and known for long term recovery repair/rebuild has asked to partner with us as well.

• Heavy Equipment Coalition, another non-profit, contacted us last night asking to join us. Their sawyer will arrive this weekend. Besides chainsaws they will be bringing in a mini excavator with them. The excavator and operator will be with us for 3 weeks.

• Christian Emergency Network (CEN) has put out an advisory directing their partners to our website if they are interested in helping. They have 113 partners in the Nashville area. 

WHAT WE ARE DOING:

GERMANTOWN 

- Feeding Station for residents & responders

NASHVILLE

- Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping

COOKEVILLE

- Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping

THE NEED:

Germantown - Direct hit to homes and businesses; Growing concern about the need for hunger relief for families without power, especially low income or disabled families and children living in the area or families taking shelter in local facilities.

Nashville - This continues to be a search and rescue operation and crews are going house to house. At this time, there are 24 confirmed fatalities, including some children, and more than 88 injuries are being treated at Cookeville Regional Medical Center.*

Cookeville - Putnam County emergency officials confirmed 18 of the 24 Nashville tornado fatalities occurred in this one community, 77 remain unaccounted for at this time.**

HOW TO HELP:

Donate: click here  

Volunteer: click here  

Mail: Gift Cards & Checks

We need gift cards and financial donations, desperately:

• Home Depot and Lowe's cards: for home repair work and debris removal tools

• Gas cards: to get volunteer teams to and from the disaster sites where homeowners are in need

• VISA cards: for clients who have extreme financial needs for survival, and for disaster work supplies

• WalMart cards: to feed volunteer teams, and for clients with extreme financial needs for survival (ex. Pharmacy medications, baby supplies, etc.)

Gift Cards & Checks can be mailed to:

Inspiritus 

Attn: Disaster Response 

P.O. Box 60597 

Nashville, TN 37206

We need your help as those vulnerable in the path of this storm will need additional resources and shelter. To that point, we are also collaborating with our friends at Lutheran Disaster Response, the Tennessee VOAD, the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA, and the Mid-South District of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, as we assess and prepare our short-term and long-term response and recovery work in Middle Tennessee. We are closely monitoring, day-by-day, the emerging needs of the community surrounding our Inspiritus Nashville program site, and will need partners to help us to continue to respond to these needs next week. 

To donate, click here and select Nashville 2020 Tornado. Our prayers are with everyone in this tornado's path.

Blessings to all our friends and family in Nashville! 

-Virginia Spencer
Vice President of Development
Inspiritus

P.S.This was the first donation made at our Feeding Site on our first day. Hundreds of residents & homeless families in North Nashville depend on Inspiritus Nashville for assistance in their times of need. Our program has been rooted in the community for many years. We were so touched as these neighbors keep showing up at our site asking how they can help their more affluent neighbors of Germantown who live "on the other side of the street". Our work could not be possible without their selfless offers to volunteer, to help with serving meals to emergency responders, and even insistently donating $1 and $2 at a time, despite themselves having no power, insufficient food, declining health, and in some cases, no home of their own. We are humbled by and grateful for their living examples of the widow's mite. 

Nashville Tornado: Day Three-On The Ground

As we enter day three of our tornado response, we wanted to share our latest observations and action plans:      

• We've observed a high level of medical difficulties amongst seniors and the disabled in Germantown & North Nashville attending our Feeding site. As days without power tick by, their health concerns increase with limited to no access to medications and support. We've made a call for nurses and will begin to have a nurse there to help starting this Friday. We have an open invitation for medical personnel to serve at our Germantown /Salemtown location at 11am daily at 1628 Rosa Parks Blvd.
   

• To respond to a high volume of hunger relief needs, we will lift our limits on food box distributions occurring at this site, allowing locals to receive as many food boxes as needed during the first month following the tornado.
   

• To respond to growing concern over the health and well-being of low income children impacted by the storm, we will begin offering our MyCanvas art therapy programming at this site to help children who are out of school, and without power and food, to process through the trauma of the storm.

WHAT WE ARE DOING:

GERMANTOWN 

- Feeding Station for residents & responders

NASHVILLE

- Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping

COOKEVILLE

- Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping

THE NEED:
Germantown - Direct hit to homes and businesses; Growing concern about the need for hunger relief for families without power, especially low income or disabled families and children living in the area or families taking shelter in local facilities.

Nashville - This continues to be a search and rescue operation and crews are going house to house. At this time, there are 24 confirmed fatalities, including some children, and more than 88 injuries are being treated at Cookeville Regional Medical Center.*

Cookeville - Putnam County emergency officials confirmed 18 of the 24 Nashville tornado fatalities occurred in this one community, 77 remain unaccounted for at this time.**

HOW TO HELP:

Donate: click here  
Volunteer: click here 

Mail: Gift Cards & Checks   

We need gift cards and financial donations, desperately: 

• Home Depot and Lowe's cards: for home repair work and debris removal tools

• Gas cards: to get volunteer teams to and from the disaster sites where homeowners are in need

• VISA cards: for clients who have extreme financial needs for survival, and for disaster work supplies

• WalMart cards: to feed volunteer teams, and for clients with extreme financial needs for survival (ex. Pharmacy medications, baby supplies, etc.)

Gift Cards & Checks can be mailed to:

Inspiritus 

Attn: Disaster Response 

P.O. Box 60597  

Nashville, TN 37206

We need your help as those vulnerable in the path of this storm will need additional resources and shelter. To that point, we are also collaborating with our friends at Lutheran Disaster Response, the Tennessee VOAD, the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA, and the Mid-South District of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, as we assess and prepare our short-term and long-term response and recovery work in Middle Tennessee. We are closely monitoring, day-by-day, the emerging needs of the community surrounding our Inspiritus Nashville program site, and will need partners to help us to continue to respond to these needs next week. 

To donate, click here and select Nashville 2020 Tornado. Our prayers are with everyone in this tornado's path.
Blessings to all our friends and family in Nashville! 

-Virginia Spencer
Vice President of Development
Inspiritus  

P.S. Volunteers from across the community and the region unloaded 5,807 pounds of food this morning into the Inspiritus food pantry to be distributed into the North Nashville/Germantown communities. Thanks to the Southeastern Synod ELCA, we have a generator to be able to handle cold products. For the duration of the disaster relief the eligibility requirements will be loosened. Thank you Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee!

Nashville Tornado: Day Two-We're on the Ground

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Nashville suffered a tornado that left at least 24 dead, 77 missing, and many homes destroyed.    

WHAT WE ARE DOING:
GERMANTOWN  - Feeding Station for residents & responders
NASHVILLE - Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping
COOKEVILLE - Response teams for debris removal, chainsawing, & tarping

THE NEED:
Germantown - Direct hit to homes and businesses; Growing concern about the need for hunger relief for families without power, especially low income or disabled families and children living in the area or families taking shelter in local facilities.
Nashville - This continues to be a search and rescue operation and crews are going house to house. At this time, there are 24 confirmed fatalities, including some children, and more than 88 injuries are being treated at Cookeville Regional Medical Center.*
Cookeville - Putnam County emergency officials confirmed 18 of the 24 Nashville tornado fatalities occurred in this one community, 77 remain unaccounted for at this time.**

HOW TO HELP:  

Donate: click here  
Volunteer: click here 
Mail: Gift Cards & Checks   

We need gift cards and financial donations, desperately: 

• Home Depot and Lowe's cards: for home repair work and debris removal tools

• Gas cards: to get volunteer teams to and from the disaster sites where homeowners are in need

• VISA cards: for clients who have extreme financial needs for survival, and for disaster work supplies

• WalMart cards: to feed volunteer teams, and for clients with extreme financial needs for survival (ex. Pharmacy medications, baby supplies, etc.)

Gift Cards & Checks can be mailed to:

Inspiritus 

Attn: Disaster Response 

1628 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. 

Nashville, TN 37208

We need your help as those vulnerable in the path of this storm will need additional resources and shelter. To that point, we are also collaborating with our friends at Lutheran Disaster Response, the Tennessee VOAD, the Southeastern Synod of the ECLA, and the Mid-South District of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, as we assess and prepare our short-term and long-term response and recovery work in Middle Tennessee.

To donate, click here and select Nashville 2020 Tornado. Our prayers are with everyone in this tornado's path.

Blessings to all our friends and family in Nashville! 

-Virginia Spencer
Vice President of Development
Inspiritus



P.S. Today, volunteers from St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Franklin, TN joined us and grilled 700 burgers & hotdogs at our Inspiritus Nashville site in Germantown (formerly St. Paul's Lutheran Church). The community came together to serve residents and responders; including policemen, power linemen, and first responders. With your support, we will continue bringing the community together to serve & be filled with hope! (Pictured: CEO-John Moeller, Regional Director of Middle Tennessee-Janet Arning, and Program Coordinator-Christie Farrar)