Baptist Disaster Relief feeding units closing, cleanup continues

After more than two months of operation, Southern Baptist Dis­­- ­aster Relief meal preparations for hurricane victims in the eastern United States planned to shut down by the end of October, but long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts remain, according to officials coordinating the unprecedented national response.
   
“This response compares to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which previously had been Southern Baptists’ largest response, but when you consider the logistics of it all, this was much more difficult because we had four different fronts and two evacuations, and we were able to produce in the neighborhood of 2.5 million meals,” said Jim Burton, director of the North American Mission Board’s volunteer mobilization team.
   
Through Oct. 20, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers had prepared more than 2.4 million meals since Hurricane Charley made landfall in southwest Florida on Aug. 13.
   
Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne followed within six weeks, crisscrossing the Sunshine State and leaving a swath of destruction in the billions of dollars throughout the Gulf Coast region and along the Atlantic Seaboard as far north as West Virginia. 
   
“Southern Baptists are going to need to have a presence in these affected states for at least two years helping to put back together both churches as well as owner-occupied homes that were underinsured or noninsured,” Burton said. “We would encourage churches even now as they look toward their summer missions projects to check with Alabama and Florida to see if there are assignments they can help with in those states.”
   
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois and Mississippi continue working in Florida and Alabama clearing debris and installing plastic tarps on damaged roofs.
   
Two Southern Baptist feeding operations remain active. One is in the Florida Panhandle at Myrtle Grove Baptist Church in Pensacola and is manned by Florida Baptist volunteers. In Century, Fla., near the Alabama state line, a mobile kitchen unit from Ohio is in operation.
   
“They’re doing about 10,000 meals a day total,” said Terry Henderson, national disaster relief director with NAMB. “After this weekend, we should go over 2.5 million meals.”
   
Henderson said several communities near Century are still without electricity. “There are a lot of pockets they’ve found up there that are going to be without power for an extended period of time,” he said. “A lot of people live in wooded areas, and power poles were still down a week ago when I was there.”
   
From mid-August through Oct. 20, more than 9,000 Southern Baptist volunteers from 38 Baptist state conventions have completed nearly 8,100 cleanup and recovery projects. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief officials estimate the value of the labor provided by volunteers at $6.9 million.
   
Southern Baptists prepare most of the meals distributed by the American Red Cross and are the third largest disaster relief agency in the country behind the Red Cross and Salvation Army.
   
“Southern Baptists need to remember that disasters aren’t over when the cleanup ends,” Burton said. “As a denomination we need to be supportive of the Baptist state conventions in the affected states as they develop their long-term strategy not just of the physical rebuild but also of the emotional and spiritual rebuild.”
   
Burton said he expects NAMB’s mobilization of more than 24,000 teenagers and adults every summer through World Changers missions projects will help significantly in regions hit by the hurricanes.
   
“The annual objective of World Changers, which is primarily the rehabilitation of substandard housing and sharing the gospel, is going to blend well with the long-term recovery efforts of disaster relief,” he said. “I do think that World Changers is going to be part of the answer to the rebuild down there.”
   
Contributions to offset direct costs of the disaster relief response may be sent to: Disaster Relief, State Board of Missions, P.O. Box 11870, Montgomery, AL 36111. (BP)