When the ground started shaking in the Pacific Northwest at 10:55 a.m. on Feb. 28, Jim Parish sprang into action.
Within minutes of the magnitude-6.8 earthquake, Parish, the director of the Puget Sound Baptist Association’s disaster relief team, had started mobilizing his Baptist troops for action.
The American Red Cross had called Parish and asked the association of Southern Baptist churches to be ready to activate their mobile feeding unit. Fortunately, Parish said, their assistance wasn’t needed.
“We had everyone on standby just in case,” Parish told Baptist Press March 1. “But we didn’t have many reports of damage, praise the Lord. Most of the structure damage was facades falling from older buildings.”
Parish said the Baptist building was not seriously damaged. “We just rode it out,” he said. “It was shaking up and down and sideways.”
The real lesson to be learned from the Seattle earthquake, Parish said, was disaster preparedness. The Puget Sound Baptist Association has about 50 volunteers who man a mobile feeding unit that can prepare up to 5,000 meals a day.
Parish said he hopes the earthquake will spur other Northwest Baptists to volunteer time for disaster relief projects.
Meanwhile, a day after the region’s stronged earthquake in a half-century, most western Washington residents headed for work, school and their daily business as usual. Still, the cost of Feb. 28’s 6.8-magnitude quake continued to climb as crews checked roads, bridges and building for damage.
The earthquake, centered about 35 miles southwest of Seattle, was felt Feb. 28 as far away as southern Oregon and Canada.
The state emergency management division tallied 272 injuries directly linked to the quake, but all but few were minor and none was considered critical.
(BP)
Share with others: