Update: reports from the team in the field
Alan Stafford, a senior biomedical science major, shares the story of a family of survivors he met.
Jackson Teller and Jacob Sauser, both junior international rescue and relief majors, tell about the team's activities in the first few days of deployment.
Original story
The same storm that left Lincoln coated in dirt last Friday became more violent as it headed east, spawning tornadoes and leaving at least 43 people dead in eight states. The small town of Diaz, Arkansas, was among the communities destroyed that night when an EF-4 tornado hit with winds up to 190 miles per hour.
Union Adventist University is sending a disaster response team of 19 students, primarily international rescue and relief majors, to help clean up and assess damage in the affected area. The team will leave Lincoln in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 18, and stay until Sunday, March 23.
Disaster Response Teams from Union are entirely donor funded. The university and its students rely on gifts from alumni and community members to make this mission possible. This deployment is estimated to cost $10,000. You can help with this and future deployments by giving below or at .
Recent deployments of the Disaster Response Team have included Newland, North Carolina in October, 2024, and Hot Spring Village, Arkansas, in March 2024. In the International Rescue and Relief Program’s 18 year history, other deployments have happened in Texas, Florida, Haiti and Malawi, with some as close to home as lending a hand after tornados in Lancaster County last year.