When the rain continued to fall on the East Coast recently and the water began to seemingly come up from the ground, South Carolina Disaster Relief knew it would need help. It issued a request for support and Alabama answered.
Record-setting rainfall from Hurricane Joaquin has caused disasterous flooding, breached 14 dams and, at press time, caused 19 confirmed fatalities in South Carolina.
Within a few hours of the request for help, Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief deployed four mudout teams, an administrative personnel team and a feeding unit that will primarily be tasked with feeding Alabama volunteers.
A team of 10 chaplains, apart from the ones already embedded in other teams, also will be deployed to work during four different weeks.
The teams will work out of North Trenholm Baptist Church, Columbia, South Carolina.
Mel Johnson, disaster relief strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said he anticipates a long-term deployment that will involve rotations of teams for the next 6–8 weeks.
And that is just for cleanup, he said. “This will be a lengthy disaster relief response and then a much more lengthy rebuild and recovery response after that.
“Southern Baptists could be there for a year or two,” Johnson said, noting there may be opportunity and need for additional volunteers a little later in the process.
Right now the best way to help is to stay in communication with your disaster relief coordinator if you are a trained volunteer.
In-kind donations such as bottled water and other supplies are well stocked and not needed at the moment, Johnson explained. So giving monetarily would be the most effective means of support, he said. “That way we can provide what is needed in the community very specifically.”
The initial four mudout teams came from Cleburne, Sand Mountain, Bessemer and Columbia Baptist associations. The first feeding unit deployed was made up of volunteers from Elmore, Autauga and Montgomery Baptist associations. The teams began arriving Oct. 11 and started their work early Oct. 12.
“As I think about the crisis currently taking place, I quickly remember 2011 and how South Carolina Baptists sent tremendous support and mass feeding, cleanup and recovery teams and chaplain teams,” Johnson said. “They came to serve us and we are grateful we can minister to them in their hour of need.”
How to help
To give to the South Carolina relief fund, visit sbdr.org/scflood/ or mail checks to State Board of Missions Flood Relief, P.O. Box 11870, Montgomery, AL 36116.
One hundred percent of the donations collected for this crisis will be forwarded to South Carolina and used to help those affected by the flooding.
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