When the more than 2 million Floridians were evacuated in anticipation of Hurricane Frances’ fury the first few days of September, all Southern Baptist volunteer disaster relief workers retreated as well. Among the workers returning home to ride out the storm were Alabama Baptists.
“We are mobilizing our people, but we are going to stay at home until the storm passes through our state,” said Tommy Puckett, director of disaster relief efforts for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
At press time, Puckett anticipated storm damage, particularly flooding problems, in the southeastern corner of Alabama. If dam- age results from the Category 4 hurricane following on the heels of Charley, another Category 4 storm, Alabama teams will assist victims in the state.
“We can’t take our teams off and leave our own people without help,” he said, noting the state’s feeding unit would possibly be sent to New Brocton, just north of Enterprise, during the holiday weekend in anticipation of the flooding. “We’ve been there for the past three floods.”
North American Mission Board (NAMB) evacuated all teams to Perry, Ga., Sept. 1 to await the land- fall of Frances and then assess mobilization efforts. Disaster relief teams have been assisting the beaten-down southwestern and central parts of Florida since Charley smashed the area Aug. 13. Charley caused more than $15 billion in damage and claimed 32 lives in Florida and the Caribbean.
“More than 250 Alabama Baptists from 26 associations have helped so far,” Puckett said, noting this is the largest number of disaster relief volunteers to be deployed in such a small time frame.
Alabama Baptists have been serving in Punta Gorda, Arcadia, Lake Wales and Orlando and are among 3,800 volunteers from 26 state Baptist conventions. The workers have pre- pared nearly 1 million meals and completed 3,500 cleanup and recovery jobs, according to NAMB officials.
Baptist relief workers were expected to prepare 1 million meals a week, tripling their current efforts, following Hurricane Frances. Thirty feeding units, each capable of feeding up to 20,000 meals a day, are scheduled to move in as soon as possible following the storm. Ten more large mobile kitchens have been placed on standby.
Puckett said Alabama’s unit is on standby and will go back to Florida if it is not needed in Alabama. The state’s shower unit was parked in Perry, Ga., Sept. 3 awaiting a decision of where it will be most needed, he added.
Puckett said with the enormous stress put on relief teams across the nation, NAMB and the SBOM are allowing untrained volunteers to help out with efforts.
“We are putting them under the leadership of those trained for on- the-job training,” he said. “Other- wise we will run out of manpower in a couple of weeks.”
To volunteer, call 1-800-264- 1225, Ext. 273. Mail monetary donations to: Disaster Relief, State Board of Missions, P.O. Box 11870, Montgomery, AL 36111.
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