At Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in western Pulaski County, thousands of bottles of water line the inside and outside of a small building holding donations for victims of the April 27 tornado and for the volunteers helping clean up the debris.
Dozens of tables in the building and the church are stacked with clothes, diapers, food, bedding, paper towels -- all kinds of essentials.
Karen Coursey, 54, a volunteer from Bryant, has worked for days just organizing the donations.
"[It's] like God's opened up the windows of Heaven," she said, referring to Scripture. "He's poured a blessing so big we can't consume it."
The church sits at the edge of the rugged, rural area of the county where the EF4 tornado tore through, killing 3 people near Paron before blazing through Faulkner and White counties and claiming the lives of 13 others. It has become a hub for area storm victims and volunteers working to get their fellow Arkansans back on track. Cleanup volunteers from out of state have gathered there, as well.
"We're spread out, but when a crisis like this happens, we come together as a community," said church member Elizabeth Smith, 63, who has been directing the donations at Pleasant Grove Baptist since the day after the storm.
Her husband, Paul Smith, 69, has been helping out, too. He recently retired as president of WEHCO Newspapers, Inc., which owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
On Tuesday, after Pulaski County was added to the federal disaster declaration because of the storm damage, the Federal Emergency Management Agency set up shop outside the church for those affected by the storm to apply to receive aid.
But that aid will take awhile to arrive. In the meantime, for the past week and a half, restaurants and neighbors have been stepping in to help. They've provided barbecue and sandwiches, among other things, to feed victims and volunteers. And today, a group from out of town is hosting a fish fry at the church for hundreds of people.
Church members have been coordinating teams of volunteers to go out three times a day to the area's 50 storm-damaged homes and properties that have fallen trees and beaten-up outbuildings.
Numerous volunteers have spent hours working solely with the vast collection of donations, boxing up care packages for victims and writing messages of hope on them before they go out: "God always has a plan," a reference to Jeremiah 29:11, or, "Pray for God's strength to overwhelm you," a reference to Philippians 4:13.
On Saturday, nearly 1,200 people signed up at the church to help there or out in the community, and about 400 poured in Sunday.
Pastor Chris Kinzler, 42, said about 75 people have been signing in on the weekdays to lend a hand.
The church has abundant bottled water, but volunteers say what is needed most is more volunteers to help with the laborious cleanup and to sort through donations and take them out to those who need them.
"Hopefully, Saturday we'll have an influx of volunteers," Kinzler said.
Those who want to help deliver donations to storm victims or who need items for themselves can stop by the church or call Elizabeth Smith at (501) 350-5614.
About noon Wednesday, while the church was preparing for lunch, the Dickinsons were hard at work on their more than 40 acres off Neal Creek Road, clearing debris.
Tracy Dickinson, 49, surveyed the damage after climbing off her all-terrain vehicle.
"There's so much of it, you have to wonder if it's ever going to get cleaned up again," she said.
Dickinson, her sister and her parents each have houses on the tornado-damaged property.
"It was a really beautiful place," said her father, Richard Dickinson, 76. "All that's gone."
His home lost part of its roof, and the windows were blown out. He spent Tuesday getting new windows in his truck and Wednesday morning cleaning broken glass out of the car.
"It's really been stressful. I've lost about 10 pounds because I'm not eating well," Richard Dickinson said. "I wake up really early in the morning and can't get back to sleep."
The workshop, where he was fixing up a 1960 Austin Healey 3000 that he bought just out of college, was destroyed, but the car is intact. He hopes to get back to work on it, although he has to rebuild the workshop first.
He said friends and volunteers from all over have made a world of difference in helping his family clean up.
Since last week, Pearl Henry, 83, has been helping volunteers sign up at Pleasant Grove Baptist.
She lives off Garrison Road, and her home wasn't damaged. But, she has seen what's happened to others living out in heavily forested western Pulaski County.
"It's just pitiful," she said.
Volunteers have been arriving from all over Arkansas and even other states.
After last year's EF5 tornado in Moore, Okla., Pleasant Grove Baptist sent a few volunteers to help with the recovery there. Since the April 27 tornado here, Kinzler said, about 75 people from Moore have signed in at the church to help out in Pulaski County.
"It's been amazing, the volunteers that have showed up," Kinzler said.
Metro on 05/09/2014