Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are wrapping up their work in Clearwater, South Carolina, today (Nov. 1) and preparing to join the cleanup effort in western North Carolina.
“We will shut down in Clearwater and bring most of our operation home,” said Mark Wakefield, state disaster relief strategist.
ABDR has had a command center set up in South Carolina since late September to help those affected by Hurricane Helene.
Chainsaw teams redirecting to North Carolina
Two chainsaw teams that were already preparing to deploy to Clearwater will head to Rutherford County, North Carolina, tomorrow (Nov. 2) instead.
“We have four or five chainsaw teams already queued up to go who will go help over the next few weeks in North Carolina,” Wakefield said.
He said that volunteers who were planning to work with the feeding unit in Clearwater may also have a place to go soon in North Carolina, Florida or Georgia, but that hasn’t been determined yet.
An ABDR shower unit that deployed to Forest City, North Carolina, several weeks ago is still in place there.
Future opportunities for rebuilding
Wakefield said as state disaster relief leaders look ahead, they’re also looking toward longterm work to help those affected by flooding. He said he thinks students from Alabama’s Baptist Campus Ministries may be able to help with rebuilding in North Carolina in the coming months or during spring break.
“We’re looking for ways to partner with our campus ministries — they’re eager to serve,” he said.
John Hayes, the white hat leader for ABDR in Clearwater, said they’ve had “three excellent days” wrapping up work there this week. He said as of this afternoon, they only had a handful of chainsaw and cleanup jobs left.
“Right now, we’re planning on closing on the end of day Sunday,” he said.
Lives impacted
As of yesterday (Oct. 31), ABDR teams had finished 414 job requests since they began work in September.
“We’ve also had nine salvations and seen people come to church because they were impacted by the people who came and worked on their yard,” Hayes said. “That’s the whole reason we’re out here.”
For more information about how to help with Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief work, visit sbdr.org.
EDITOR’S NOTE — November 4 update — Before operations ended in Clearwater, one more person professed faith in Christ, raising the number of salvations there to 10.
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