Puckett honored for disaster relief leadership

Tommy Puckett, director of disaster relief for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, was recently awarded the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Joel Phillips Outstanding Achievement Award for his accomplishments in disaster relief.
   
The award was presented during the Southern Baptist Convention-wide annual Disaster Relief Roundtable, held April 25–27 in Arlington, Texas. During the roundtable, Puckett reported to the crowd of some 350 disaster relief leaders the effect of Hurricane Katrina in Alabama. 
   
New ministries have resulted among Cambodians and Vietnamese in Mobile Baptist Association because they saw disaster relief volunteers come to help, he noted.
   
Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, expressed gratitude to the crowd for Southern Baptist volunteers’ response to the hurricanes.
   
“No longer are you considered a group of last resort, but a group of first resort. The government doesn’t take for granted your contributions, but seeks to take advantage of them,” Towey said.
   
During the 2005 hurricane season, 500 Southern Baptist Disaster Relief units representing 41 state conventions operated for 184 days, utilizing 21,000 volunteers whose time amounted to 165,748 volunteer days. That accounted for more than 14.5 million of the 17,124,738 meals prepared by Southern Baptist crews all year.
In the aftermath of the hurricanes, volunteers purified 21,595 gallons of water; completed 25,826 of the 28,253 loads of laundry; and cared for 7,817 children of displaced families. Activity throughout the year expanded to a total of 166 responses to disasters and included the removal of 13,986 cubic yards of debris and the repair of 7,246 buildings. (BP, NAMB)