Have Plane will Travel

On August 5, an EF.2 impacted the town of Baring in Knox County in the northeast corner of the state. The 125-person community had 30 to 40 residences destroyed, with another 10 with major damage and over 30 with minor damage. 

Missouri Conference Disaster Response was asked to provide cleaning kits. The challenge was getting them from Woods Chapel UMC in Lee’s Summit, one of the Disaster Kit Hub Network locations around the state. Ann Williams, Woods Chapel missions and care director, called up one of her Early Response Trained volunteers, Jeff Ragsdale, to see if he could help.

Ragsdale gave some thought to Ann’s request and suggested he fly rather than drive the seven-hour round trip to deliver cleaning kits to their destination. Ragsdale is a flight instructor and thought the transport of the cleaning kits via airplane would allow one of his students the necessary opportunity to prepare for his upcoming solo flight. The duo landed at the airport in Kirksville, and Ragsdale called in a favor from a local friend, Chris, who helped unload the kits and drove them to Baring in time for the Multi-Agency Resource Center event hosted by the Missouri state government for storm survivors.