Church comes to Havre to help storm victims

Volunteers from branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in Havre Saturday with chainsaws, pickups, flatbed trailers and hand saws to help property owners clean up from the record-setting Oct. 2-3 snowstorm.

Steven Whitney of Great Falls, who is president of the Great Falls Montana East Stake, which includes the Havre congregation, said he was "very surprised" by the amount of downed tree limbs he saw when he came into town.

"This community got hit pretty hard with this recent storm," he said.

He said that, in all, about 45 volunteers of congregations in Havre, Chinook, Malta, Fort Benton and Great Falls and other areas were helping cut down dangling tree limbs, dragging them to be piled in the back of trucks and hauling them off to the tree dump.

Volunteers, Whitney said, arrived in Havre at 9 a.m. where they met up at the Havre ward on Washington Avenue. Members were divided into teams that varied in size from three to 12 people depending on the demand of the job. They planned to keep working until 3 p.m.

The equipment used, Whitney said, was all the personal property of the volunteers.

Brian Williams, a bishop with the church's Havre ward, said volunteers ranged in age from his own son, who is 8, to some volunteers in their 70s. Williams said he first talked with Whitney about assisting with the cleanup at a meeting they were at last Sunday.

Williams said that throughout the week he and other leaders in the Havre ward talked with city officials and people within the community, who knew of people who needed assistance cleaning their yards of downed branches.

"We have members of our church here in Havre and we have just had them check with their neighbors to see if anybody needs help, and they made up a list," Whitney said.

The list, Williams said, consisted of about 35 property owners who wanted help, many elderly, with disabilities or otherwise unable to remove or cut down branches themselves.

Whitney said the desire to serve others in need is deeply rooted in the church which has a large service program.

"We have a desire to be able to serve not only the members of our church but anybody in the community," Whitney said.

Carolyn Huntington, a member of the Havre Ward and property owner, was the recipient of the help from volunteers.

"It has just been wonderful to have everyone come from the church and help me," she said.

Huntington, who lives with her spotted dachshund Princess on Ninth Avenue, said she lost part of her heart when she saw how the storm battered the trees on her property.

"I've lost all my trees, and all my shade in the backyard, and I have been here for almost 25, 30 years," she said.

Huntington said her home was without power for six days after the storm, during which time she stayed with a couple who are members of the church.

"I've been taken care of so well," Huntington said.