Five Alabama Baptist disaster relief teams headed for Missouri after widespread ice storms left millions of people from Oklahoma to Wisconsin in the dark and cold.
The storms began Dec. 9 and by Dec. 15, Alabama Baptists were arriving to help with cleanup.
Teams from Elmore, St. Clair, Tennessee River, Etowah and Sand Mountain Baptist associations joined chain saw teams from around the nation pulling limbs off houses and power lines and clearing off sidewalks across the state, according to Tommy Puckett, Alabama Baptist disaster relief director.
The hardest-hit areas — and those being served by Alabama Baptists — are around Joplin near the Oklahoma line, five counties surrounding Jefferson City in central Missouri and 13 counties around St. Joseph in the northwest corner of the state.
Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri have been declared federal disaster areas, and at least 27 people have died as a result of the storms, most due to weather-related traffic accidents.
Southern Baptist feeding units are serving 18 shelters in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the two major metro areas affected by the ice storms.
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a member of Second Baptist Church, Springfield, Mo., has also mobilized the National Guard to St. Joseph to help identify residents in need. Churches in those hard-hit areas have opened their doors as shelters to those without power and to disaster relief workers. (BP, TAB)
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