More than 250 volunteers power tornado clean-up in West Point, Georgia

More than 250 volunteers power tornado clean-up in West Point, Georgia

WEST POINT, Georgia — It had been a month since a March 26 EF-3 tornado struck areas of town that Freedom in Christ’s Randall Hamer decided that recovery efforts needed a huge boost as impacted residents were beginning to feel forgotten.

He turned to an expert in rounding up volunteers and turning love for communities into action — Chattahoochee Fuller Center Project Executive Director Kim Roberts.

“I asked him on a Monday morning: ‘What do you need?’” Roberts recalled this morning. “He said he needed boots on the ground and equipment. I said, ‘Let’s go!’”

More than 250 volunteers and multiple entities came together on Saturday to clean up debris from the tornado in areas that looked as if they had been hit by the tornado just days earlier instead of weeks ago.

“We really didn’t know who would show up to be honest because we planned this in two weeks, but we knew we needed to hurry because they needed hope,” Roberts said. “We had so many churches involved, and just the community itself came out. That’s what I wanted West Point to see — our faces.

“The community came together,” she added. “It was put together fast, but it turned out really well, and the people were so happy to see us. They needed the love. I’m just so proud of our community.”

She added that she would like to thank all of the churches, businesses and other groups that provided meals and/or other resources for the event, including: Charter Foundation, Kia, Hyundai Transys, Freedom in Christ, Springroad Christian, Coca-Cola, Renasant Bank, Home Depot, Magid Safety at Work, Rhino Tools, Bee TV, Church of the Highlands, West Point Mayor Steve Tramell, City of Lanett, City of Valley, City of West Point and The Chattahoochee Fuller Center Project.