Tornado recovery winds down in Selma 

Mennonite Disaster Service held a home blessing ceremony last week to celebrate the last Selma house built as part of reparation efforts from the January 2023 tornado.

The next day, MDS trucks, vans and trailers pulled out of the parking lot of Church Street United Methodist Church, where many of them stayed while they were in Selma, and they left the Queen City on to the next disaster project.

Since October 2023, the Mennonite program has spent $2 million and donated 12,000 volunteer hours repairing 38 homes and rebuilding five homes in Selma. 

Jay Gilmer, chairman of the Long Term Recovery Committee that formed right after the tornado, said recovery efforts throughout Selma have started to wind down, with most funds spent and cases completed.

A dedication ceremony on May 15 for the last new home was held at 1213 Lawrence St. for the Reynolds family, whose original house was badly damaged by the tornado and had to be torn down for a new build at the site. 

MDS Selma Project Director Michele WhiteEagle said volunteers from all over the country contributed to the building of this last home, donating more than 1,846 hours of work. 

MDS crews have been rotating in and out of Selma after spending a few weeks or months working there. WhiteEagle said the last week they were in town, 23 volunteers from Indiana, Kansas, New York, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Idaho and even Germany helped out. 

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Selma United Way Executive Director Jeff Cothran said when the tornado hit, “I was in the basement of my house, and when I came out, my office had been blown away, my neighbors’ homes were ruined as well as 500 other structures in the city.” 

Cothran reported that the United Way “began immediately pulling our resources together” to help rebuild the city. They worked with numerous other organizations and individuals as part of the Selma Long Term Recovery Committee. 

Other partners who worked alongside the United Way are Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, Lutheran Disaster Recovery, Presbytery of Shepherds and Lapsley, Alabama West Florida Conference United Methodist Church and Auburn Rural Studio. 

Katrice Salone, housing program manager for Selma’s Planning and Development Department, and Mackinzie Stagg, assistant research professor at Auburn’s Rural Studio, gave the keys to the house to homeowner Belinda Reynolds and her son Octavius, brother Lavell and sister Jennifer. 

The Reynolds expressed gratitude, and Belinda said that at one point, the process to get her home repaired or rebuilt became so complicated she was about ready to give up.  

But the family’s faith and prayers saw them through, she said. Belinda’s 4-year-old niece Brooklyn Butler recited for the crowd the prayer they said every night. 

After the presentation of the keys, the Reynolds family was given a number of gifts from MDS. One was a handmade wooden rocking chair signed by volunteers who worked on the home. The other was a handmade cutting board made by a small cabinet shop in Goessel, Arkansas, that MDS uses to make the cabinets in the homes they build.