Workers from Burington Baptist Church in northern Kentucky have made several trips to help with recovery efforts in western Kentucky.One in a series of stories on the one-year anniversary of the western Kentucky tornadoes.
HARDIN, Ky. (KT) – Life changed for many in western Kentucky since tornadoes carved a destructive path through western Kentucky last December.
Mark Sickling, the associational mission strategist for the 46 churches in the Blood River Association, has had a dual role since Dec. 11, 2021, the day after the tornadoes left in their wake unimaginable misery for thousands.
Sickling is the chairman of the Marshall County long-term recovery group and has coordinated rebuilding of homes with keen organizational skills that have been a blessing not only among those churches in the Blood River Association but friends and neighbors throughout Marshall County.
“One of the reasons I took on my role with Marshall County long-term recovery was as a result of being AMS,” Sickling said. “One of my roles, as I see it, is to help coordinate mission efforts be it here in our area or elsewhere throughout the state or country. When this tornado happened right here in our own county, you’ve got to be involved. We want our churches to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”
Sickling said he was invited to a meeting the day after the tornado and was immediately installed as chairman of the group. He is widely known in the area and his obvious organizational skills made him the perfect fit.
“I didn’t realize I’d be the chair of the long-term recovery group, but I was like, ‘OK, Lord, I’ll volunteer.’ He provides the strength to get things done,” Sickling said. “Many times, I’ve felt this past year I haven’t done justice to either position. I’m trying to minister to people in the name of Jesus.”
Sickling has become the point man for recovery in Marshall County, which was one of the hardest hit areas from the tornado. He has directed Kentucky Baptist church groups wanting to help homeowners who need it the most. He’s appreciative of those Kentucky Baptist churches, including Burlington Baptist in northern Kentucky that has made multiple visits, who have sent team to aid in rebuilding.
“Burlington Baptist has been one of our dream teams,” he said. “Burlington has been amazing. We sent them a personal invitation to come to our anniversary event on Saturday.”
On the one-year anniversary of the tornadoes, many of the communities who were devastated are coming together for a observance on Saturday. Marshall County’s event will be at the Jonathon Creek Community Center at 1 p.m. (local time).
Sickling said the stories that survivors tell of what they have been through not only that night but in the following months has been inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time. He said one family lived in a bedroom for nine months because it was the only room not affected by the tornado.
“The team from Burlington worked with them and have them back in all the rooms of their home,” he said.
One man was washing his dog in the bathtub and after the tornado hit he was in his yard with his dog still in the bathtub.
Other Kentucky Baptist churches have sent groups and Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief has had a presence there but so have a lot of other denominations, he said.
“We have had teams from Catholic churches, Lutheran disaster relief and disaster responses from many different denominations and that’s been good,” Sickling said. “Our long-term group represents not only me as a Southern Baptist but a Lutheran pastor, a Catholic priest and a Church of Christ pastor. So far it has worked very well.”
Sickling said his home was not damaged in the storm. He received a call the next morning from the local Kentucky Disaster Relief chainsaw team and they went out and began clearing roads so people could get in and out. They encountered difficultly immediately because the doors on their storage buildings were electric and the power was knocked out. They have a 20-foot tall door and couldn’t reach the pull cord, he said. “It took some doing just to get the trucks and equipment out.”
Sickling has learned to improvise through it all and spent plenty of time asking for God’s help as he tends not only to the churches in the association but everybody in the area.
Sickling said only three churches in the association were damaged, two of them were minor and one was major.
“It’s hard to believe it has been a year,” he said. “A lot has happened but not a lot has happened. We still find a lot of folks struggling to recover. But we see signs of somewhat getting back to normal with construction going on.”
Case managers for the Marshall County long-term recovery group have closed 400 cases, he said.
“Those families have fully recovered or didn’t feel like they needed assistance,” he said. “We still have 50 open cases. I talked to a family last week that has never reached out for help but realized they couldn’t do it. I told them what they need to do (to get help). Another thing I’ve seen through this is many of our people have the attitude of help somebody else first.”
Sickling said those survivors still get a raise in stress level anytime a tornado watch comes over the airwaves. He said while the hope is that tornado response will likely be done by this time next year, the Marshall County recovering recruitment will not disband.
“Long-term recovery groups are meant to be kind of like DR teams,” he said. “When disaster comes, these groups are ready to go. This time we were slow getting started and getting organized. (But) If we have another tornado or an earthquake, this group is going to be ready to come in. Hopefully we can respond quicker.”
While the recovery hasn’t come as quickly as they hoped it would, Sickling said it was important to celebrate every home and every family that has recovered.
“In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t seem like we have made as much progress as we would have liked,” he said. “But when you see what happens to one family, we must celebrate all those little successes. When there is a win, everybody wins.”