“Just imagine looking down Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles as far as you can see and seeing collapsed buildings and piles of rubble four to five stories tall in every direction you looked,” Orange County first-responder Chaplain Richard “Rick” Yeomans, 67, told The Epoch Times after returning earlier this month from Turkey, in the aftermath of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Feb. 6.
“The smells in the air within the destruction areas were like what I experienced at Ground Zero during 9/11, mildew mixed with body decomposition, mixed with the scent of wet cement. It was all over the place,” he said.
This is not Yeomans’ first return from a major disaster zone.
A president of Emergency Ministry Services, which he founded in 2007, the San Juan Capistrano resident has completed several dozen deployments across the globe. He also routinely trains teams from churches across Southern California who deploy to help victims when disasters strike.
“The basic needs of food, shelter, and medical care are highly needed in Turkey right now after the earthquake,” Yeomans said. “But one of the most important things is bringing comfort to those in need, those who are suffering, and to those that have lost everything.”
The current death toll, which also affected neighboring Syria, has surpassed 46,000 people, with over 850,000 children displaced in both nations.
To Yeomans, an important tool to bring comfort to those in disaster areas is having them, as trauma victims, share their stories and emotions.
One such tactic to facilitate this, for both children and parents, Yeomans said, was engaging them with the use of puppets, which he used on his recent visit.
“He looks like a rescue worker but at about a foot and a half tall the kids just absolutely loved this little guy,” he said of the puppet. “It was so neat to see that even the adults were laughing. ... To see people laughing will always lighten the atmosphere where it’s desperately needed.”
Though Yeomans reported that Turkey’s earthquake showed similarities to Haiti’s major shake in 2010—which he deployed to several times—he said his recent transition back to Orange County has proven to be tougher than usual.
“In my case, I was just overwhelmed this time around. On the ground, I was thinking that this [situation] can’t be real. How could so many buildings and so many people have been affected by this thing?” he said.
Yeomans said he uses the same de-stressing techniques upon his return home that he counsels others within such disaster zones.
“When you’re giving out yourself for somebody else, it’s a tremendous blessing,” he said. “But ... there needs to be a calling in your life for this because it’s not for everybody. Self-care is a very important part of doing this kind of ministry.”
Despite these challenges, Yeomans said he plans on continuing the calling God put upon him to “bless the suffering” and will return to Turkey next month.
“In the destruction of those buildings ... there’s just something very unique in those situations where God’s presence is felt and so real, even amongst the survivors who have not accepted Him into their lives yet,” he said. “You hear His presence and experience the Lord in this way, you want to do it again and again.”
