Billy Graham - Rapid Response Team - Washington Illinois Tornadoes

They’ve seen things that many people never will. They’ve stood in the rubble of Haiti and the twisted wreckage of Moore, Oklahoma. They’ve cried with survivors of floods and tornadoes across the country. They’ve gone to many disasters, but they never thought that the disaster would come to them.

November 17, 2013 Disaster struck just a few miles away from Chaplains Robert and Frieda Roulds and Chaplain Christopher Nebergall.

“I keep forgetting where I am,” said chaplain Frieda Roulds of Peoria, Ill. In recent years she’s left the comfort of home to immerse herself into disasters in Oklahoma or Indiana, but this time it’s different. “I know this could happen anywhere, but you just don’t think about right at home.”

November 17, 2013, a fierce storm moved across the Midwest, spawning 80 tornadoes and destroying thousands of homes. News reports indicated that six people were killed in Illinois, with up to 200 more injured. Seven counties in the state were declared disaster areas.

One of the hardest hit areas was the community of Washington, Ill., and the first Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains to show up to offer emotional and spiritual support were from Peoria, just 10 miles away.

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