COLUMN: Lending a hand when it's needed most

Imagine a monster tornado ripping through Aiken County tearing up a 14 mile path of destruction, including six miles of total devastation through the City of Aiken. Imagine your feelings when you learn 141 of your friends and neighbors are dead and hundreds more injured. For most of us, the closest we have come to a tornado are the opening scenes of the movie "The Wizard of Oz".

The tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, was not created on a Hollywood soundstage but was a real life storm that created havoc, devastation, death and destruction. For the residents of the Joplin area, the lessons from the aftermath of the real thing are gut wrenching and personal.

"We are open. Pray for Joplin," states a newly erected sign outside a Joplin pharmacy offering customers free water and coffee. Unfortunately, Joplin is far from being open for business. The clean-up process is monumental with large scale debris removal just getting underway. Electrical crews are hoisting power poles, small businesses are opening in tents and residents are snatching up limited construction supplies as initial rebuilding gets started.

Regretabbly, in only a few weeks Joplin's plight has moved to the background of our collective conscience. The media moved on to the next disaster; without them Joplin will be quickly forgotten.

The same happened in 2008 when Hurricane Ike roared into Texas. Ike was the third most costly hurricane in U.S. history, but few remember. I was there on mission for several weeks and witnessed how quickly the news crews abondoned the devastation and its victims and returned to the presidential campaign trail.

The same can't be said for Hurricane Katrina. The plight of New Orleans was seared into our collective memory with non-stop news coverage for months. The massive and sustained news coverage of Katrina caused tens of thousands of American's to pitch in and help. Faith-based mission teams from all denominations volunteered to clean-up and re-build.

Like many, I was moved to volunteer and was fortunate to join the good people from Aiken's Millbrook Baptist Church and Trinity United Methodist Church. Over a couple of years we made four week-long mission trips to areas hardest hit by Katrina. We made a difference on a very personal level. On average our teams put in about 800-1000 man hours of work in a week. Imagine if a group of hard working souls showed up at your damaged home with that amount of time to help clean debris and re-build. It was amazing.

Let's be amazing again and again. Let's rally the forces of good in Aiken County and lend a hand to the people of Joplin. The victims there are in a marathon and they can't run a marathon for months and months alone; they need our help. It's helping hands that are most needed. I found you don't have to have construction expertise (I'm not). You just have to have a willing heart and a good work ethic.

How big is the need? I contacted my counter-part in Joplin, State Rep. Bill White. He says the government will demolish the most seriously damaged or destroyed buildings and homes, but many others will need roofs and other repairs. The government won't do that work. That's where contractors and volunteers come in. White said, blue tarps covering roofs currently dot the skyline for many of the 5,000 homes damaged.

How do you get started? Rep. White suggested you check-out Joplin's local website http://rebuildjoplin.org. It lists the contact numbers for the groups currently organizing volunteers as well as organizations that will accept financial donations.

But don't stop there. Take the lead personally and talk up the need within your local church, civic organization and among your family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Organize teenagers who have time on their hands this summer; lead by adults those teens will surely find a meaningful purpose to their summer break. Reach out to the the Southern Baptist Convention, Catholic Charities, the United Methodist Committee on Relief and others. Those organizations are expert at mobilizing volunteers and scheduling their participation.

The need is now and later. Joplin residents will be dealing with the aftermath of this terrible tornado for years. They still have some dark days ahead, but their load will be lessened with the help from the good people of Aiken County.

As Rep. White says, "We will rebuild Joplin."

I hope they do it with our help.

Rep. Bill Taylor serves S.C. House District 86. He is vice chairman of the Aiken County Chapter of the American Red Cross and created the Emergency Mobile Shower Unit for first responders and disaster victims.