When the tornado warning came, Jonathan Blanchard knew the weather was going to be bad.
For nearly three decades, Blanchard has answered emergency calls as a volunteer firefighter. He knows how quickly bad weather can turn dangerous, and as he monitored the radar from his home in Bogue Chitto, Mississippi, he knew this storm was different. He needed a safer place than his mobile home to ride it out.
Blanchard and his family went to a nearby neighbor’s house, where others had also gathered to wait for the storm to pass. Once it was safe, he set out on foot to check on his home because the roads were impassable.
What should have been a short walk -about three-tenths of a mile- became a nearly two-hour struggle through uprooted trees, snapped limbs, tangled brush, and storm debris.
When he reached his house, it was standing, but the damage was severe. “It’s totaled,” Blanchard said. “It blew my windows out. All the rain went in it.” Most everything inside was ruined.
He didn’t have time to process the loss because a short distance away, he heard a cry for help. Blanchard and another neighbor made their way on foot to find a woman trapped beneath an upside-down camper. They stayed with her for hours until she could be rescued, carrying her by backboard through the debris to an ambulance nearly a quarter of a mile away.
Blanchard never went back that night. He went to work instead. While his own home sat damaged and uninhabitable, Blanchard was doing what first responders do — putting his own needs on hold to serve others.
Like so many survivors across the impacted area, Blanchard is facing the long road ahead. “We’re just going to have to move forward,” he said. Blanchard is thankful his wife, children, family, and friends are safe. He also knows others are facing the days ahead with far less. “A lot of people have lost everything. There are families that have nothing.”
First responders like Blanchard are true heroes — neighbors serving neighbors, even when their own lives have been turned upside down.
Following the tornado, The Salvation Army brought pallets of water and shelf-stable food to Blanchard’s firehouse, recognizing that first responders are often the first people survivors see after a disaster strikes. As firefighters, law enforcement, emergency personnel, and other local responders continue serving their communities, The Salvation Army is helping make sure they have the resources they need to care for others.
For Blanchard, the support The Salvation Army provides is practical and needed. As both a survivor and a first responder, he understands how important it is for people on the front lines and families trying to recover to have food, water, and basic resources available in the days after a disaster.
Blanchard put the need simply. “Keep feeding the public,” he said. “Assist them with what they need.”
Through the support of generous neighbors, The Salvation Army can continue providing meals, hydration, emotional and spiritual care, and practical support to people recovering from this disaster. Because after the storm passes, the work is just beginning.
To support The Salvation Army’s disaster response efforts, please give today at HelpSalvationArmy.org.
