2008: Project Gassville, AK

Project name

Project Gassville

Project Type

Tornado response

Project summary

All Hands Volunteers launched Project Gassville (PG), in response to tornado that destroyed 79 homes and severely damaged an additional 100 homes in Gassville, Arkansas. Multiple cities and towns were affected by more than 70 tornadoes across four states in a single night.

Start / finish dates

Feb 12, 08 – Mar 3, 08

GPS coordinates (decimal)

36.282187, -92.4955587
N36° 16.9312′, W092° 29.7335′

Project Director(s)

Bill Driscoll Jr

Additional Project Staff

Beca Howard

Description

All Hands Volunteers launched Project Gassville, in response to a tornado that destroyed 79 homes and severely damaged an additional 100 homes in the city of Gassville, Arkansas.

After evaluating the damage and meeting with local churches, city officials and volunteers, All Hands Volunteers determined a need for greater coordination of resources and volunteers. The Mayor of Gassville, Danny Smith, welcomed All Hands Volunteeers– offering office space inside the City Hall and Community Center complex.

The Gassville Coordination Center (GCC), set up and managed by All Hands Volunteers, focused on the coordination of responding volunteer organizations– ensuring a fast and efficient response to resident requests. The GCC hosted weekly coordination meetings where local, state, and federal government officials could interact with community organizations and local faith based organizations. The GCC’s inter-agency coordinative services effectively connected survivors to food, housing, clothing, and organizations providing financial assistance.

All Hands ended the 21-day project by transitioning the Gassville Coordination Center over to two AmeriCorp members. They provided Gassville with long-term recovery support for the next two months.

Programs

Mapping: Brian, a hiker and mapping aficionado from NH, put his skills to work and mapped out the tornado’s track through Gassville which helped paint the picture of the overall damage. Brian’s color-coded map has been used continuously by the city building inspectors and has also been used in several FEMA briefings on the area!

Structure Demolition: Randy from the construction company RBC Inc. in Mountain Home, AR donated his time and equipment (dump trucks and excavator) and took down two houses and a church that were structurally unsound and could not be rebuilt.

Debris Pick-up: Most of the 200+ volunteers that worked with Project Gassville made their impact cleaning up debris and clearing trees. Volunteers Brad, Yvon, Deke, Brooke, Joey and Tom helped haul 30+ loads (over 450 yards) of curbside debris to the dump, saving the City valuable time and money.

Roofing: Volunteers from the First Baptist Gravel Ridge Church led by Keith Hurst re-roofed one home and repaired two others.

Moving: Volunteers helped six families pack up and move into new homes or place their things into a storage unit while they firm up housing options. This service was particularly useful for elderly residents who were forced to move out of the severely damaged mobile home park.

Beneficiaries

All Hands helped 73 families through its 96 completed work requests– successfully connecting tornado survivors to food, shelter and financial assistance. Clearing debris, repairing and demolishing homes.

Total number of volunteers / volunteer hours

A total of 205 volunteers over the 21-day project and contributed approximately 3,315 hours of work, saving the City of Gassville an estimated $62,700.

Total cost

$13,797.42

Major Partners

Persevere Disaster Relief loaned tools and equipment. The Riverside Church of Christ, Salvation Army, Assembly of God Church, Baxter County Sheriff Department, City of Gassville, Local Lions Club, Gassville United Methodist Church

List of Major Supporters

We hosted volunteer groups from Arkansas State University Nursing Program, Emmanuel Church of Mountain Home, Kimberling City United Methodist Church of MO, BonaResponds, Rocky Ledge Baptist Church of MO, Future Business Leaders of America of Yellville High School, 1st United Methodist Church of Conway, AR, Gassville Riverside Church of Christ, Rogers Church of Christ, Fellowship Bible Church of Mt. Home, AR, the Girdner Community, and Wallis Construction.