Relief efforts evolving in response to tornado and flooding devastation
Mike Tony | Herald-Standard
Valerie Hall and her husband, Pastor Buzz Hall, stand before clothing donated for those impacted by Thursday’s tornado and flooding at Solid Rock Ministry in Uniontown.
Mike Tony | Herald-Standard
Skyler Moncheck (left), his son Zayne and mother Marilyn surveyed the damage at their former Cycle Avenue home in North Union Township Monday. The Monchecks are looking for a four-bedroom home that can house their six-member family.
Mike Tony | Herald-Standard
Marilyn Moncheck (left), holding her grandson Zayne, and her son Skyler surveyed the damage at their former Cycle Avenue home in North Union Township Monday. The Monchecks are looking for a four-bedroom home that can house their six-member family.
“When the tomato (sic) hit my house, it destroyed my home.”
That’s what Marilyn Moncheck’s grandson Zayne said after Thursday night’s tornado tore the roof off their Cycle Avenue home in North Union Township, causing her and her husband, son and three grandchildren to move into a hotel, where they’ve been paying $90 a night to stay.
Moncheck knows her family is lucky to be alive after five pine trees and a utility pole all managed to miss their house as they fell during the tornado.
“It was like a bomb hit us,” Moncheck said.
But rainwater falling through the roof has destroyed the home and most of their possessions, said the Monchecks, who are now trying to find a four-bedroom home big enough for their family. They need furniture, beds, toys, clothing and food items, and Moncheck’s son Skyler is skeptical that the $3,000 windfall he expects from the family’s renter’s insurance will be enough to fix anything.
The Monchecks don’t want to have to leave the area, but their top priority is to stay together. They’ve been scouring Google and Craigslist looking for suitable places to live, Skyler said.
Such continued devastation abounds across Fayette County for families whose ways of life were suddenly waylaid by the tornado, the Pittsburgh area’s first in February since 1950, according to the National Weather Service Pittsburgh.
In response, members of the Western Pennsylvania Regional Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) held a conference call Monday afternoon to discuss how to coordinate local response to the tornado and related flooding impact on Uniontown, North Union Township and surrounding communities.
The regional VOAD is a committee of the Pennsylvania VOAD, which convenes voluntary organizations that work on disaster prevention, response and recovery.
After the conference call, VOAD Secretary Liddy Barlow stressed that individuals affected by the tornado and or flooding should call 211, whose operators can connect them to local organizations who can provide help.
“We have not yet had many requests for aid from Fayette County, and we want to make sure that people who are affected know that help is available,” Barlow said, adding that there will be a central point to receive monetary donations which has not yet been finalized.
Uniontown Emergency Management Agency coordinator and Fayette County VOAD Chairman Greg Crossley said when an organization is designated to become the main fiscal agent for distributing relief funding, that information will be given to 211 as well.
On Tuesday, Fayette County Community Action Agency stepped forward to partner with VOAD, establishing a fund to accept monetary donations. The funds will be used specifically to help those in need as a result of the storm.
Those who wish to donate may send a check made out to Fayette County Community Action, indicating “disaster relief” in the memo line. Checks can be mailed to the agency, attention disaster relief, at 108 Beeson Blvd., Uniontown, 15401.
PA 2-1-1 is a free, accessible three-digit telephone number that provides information to Pennsylvanians about community services.
For now, Uniontown area organizations are dividing up collections.
The East End United Community Center at 150 Coolspring St. is collecting cleaning supplies, while the Uniontown Salvation Army at 32 W. Fayette St. is collecting food and cleaning supplies.
“I think people are just starting to realize what they have to do and what direction they need to go,” Maj. Deborah Weigner said Monday afternoon of those impacted by the disaster.
Dan Tobin, director of marketing and communications at the American Red Cross Western Pennsylvania region, said that the Red Cross has had case workers in the area assessing the disaster.
“We’re still assessing what the community needs are,” Tobin said, adding that the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is helping people with cleanup efforts.
Agencies participating in Monday afternoon’s conference call were VOAD members including the Red Cross, Salvation Army, UMCOR, Team Rubicon, 2-1-1 and Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania. Other agencies joining the call were Crossley, Roy Shipley of the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA).
“There is no need for donations of clothing or other supplies at this time for victims of these disasters,” Barlow said. “Please do not bring clothing donations to participating agencies.”
Reps. Matt Dowling, R-Uniontown, and Ryan Warner, R-Perryopolis, reported 22 homes destroyed and 218 total affected, per the Red Cross, following the conference call.
The Solid Rock Ministry on Millview Street, which had six families lose homes to the tornado, has been collecting and distributing clothing, toiletries and other items.
“Basically, anything you need to start a home,” Valerie Hall, wife of Solid Rock Ministry Pastor Buzz Hall, said of the church’s neighbors’ needs.
Approximately a dozen employees of Shield Construction, a construction company based in Ohio and West Virginia, passed out sack lunches and water to people on Millview Street and surrounding byways Monday.
“They’re just lost,” project manager Eddie West said. “They’re devastated.”
Dowling said his office is ready to assist anyone who lost vital state documents, such as birth certificates, license or car registration and titles, tax forms and any state-related forms, and Warner said his office can assist those who lost state and federal documents as well.
Warner noted that Fayette County has had to endure major flooding in Connellsville and Uniontown, a thwarted mass shooting and now a tornado in the past year and a half.
“The people in the county … they’ve pulled through each time because they pitched in and helped each other,” Warner said.
The Monchecks, though, don’t know exactly how or where they’re going to pull through this time.
Looking at what used to be her home shortly before driving Zayne away after he got upset by the scene, Marilyn shook her head.
“I just can’t believe it,” Marilyn said.