In the wake of Hurricane Irene’s 1,500-mile path of destruction from North Carolina to eastern Canada, Southern Baptist disaster relief leaders and volunteers were mobilized for an 11-state disaster response.
Coordinated by the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) disaster operations center in Alpharetta, Ga., Southern Baptists are deploying to respond up and down the East Coast — to North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
According to news accounts, Hurricane Irene resulted in at least 46 deaths, some 2.4 million Americans being evacuated from their homes and 4.5 million without electricity. Irene’s damage estimates range from $7 billion to $20 billion.
Alabama Baptist disaster relief resources are not currently engaged in the effort, said Mel Johnson, disaster relief strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“Currently we have chain saw, cleanup and recovery and mudout teams on alert,” he said at press time. “But floodwaters must fully recede prior to these operations beginning. It is only then that assessment can be made and permission granted from property owners so crews can begin their ministry.
“We are working in cooperation with the impacted state conventions and will follow their lead as the disaster relief incident command center issues callouts to teams,” Johnson explained. “Once the need for Alabama teams is confirmed and as lodging, showers and other logistical issues are met, the teams will be placed on standby for deployment. They will then be activated in order of team skill set for location requirements and requests.”
The American Red Cross has asked Southern Baptist disaster relief to generate the capacity to prepare and deliver 100,000 meals a day in North Carolina; 50,000 meals in Virginia; 15,000 meals in New England; and 5,000 meals in New York.
Deployments at press time included:
• In the Tar Heel State, feeding kitchens from state conventions in North Carolina, Mississippi and Florida have deployed to provide meals for victims, responders and volunteers.
• In hard-hit New England, conventions from New England, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio will staff feeding units.
• New York and Mississippi conventions will provide feeding units in New York state.
• In Virginia, the Virginia Baptist Mission Board (VBMB) and Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV) conventions will handle all feeding in the state. VBMB and South Carolina are providing five shower and laundry units for Virginia.
Because Hurricane Irene turned out to be more of a rain event than a wind event, Southern Baptist disaster relief mud-out teams are in heavy demand to assist victims whose homes were flooded in some areas where as much as 14 inches of rainfall were recorded.
North Carolina has requested 10 chain saw and 10 mud-out teams. Seven chain saw teams — four from Mississippi and three from Arkansas — already are headed to North Carolina, with four more teams from the two states on standby. In all, North Carolina disaster relief leaders have requested 20 recovery teams.
VBMB is providing three shower and laundry units in Lawrenceville and Warsaw, Va., while the Maryland/Delaware convention has asked for four chain saw teams and two assessors to survey damage there.
Needs are still being assessed in New Jersey and Vermont, where massive flooding has caused entire towns to be stranded by overflowing creeks and rivers that washed out roads and bridges.
As if the Southern Baptist disaster relief response to Hurricane Irene wasn’t challenging enough, work continues for the seventh week in Minot, N.D., where June floods ravaged that city of 40,000.
“We can’t forget about the serious situation and the needs of flood victims in Minot,” noted Mickey Caison, NAMB disaster relief team leader. A full complement of mud-out, feeding and shower/laundry volunteers currently are working in Minot, where Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers have worked 4,600 volunteer days to provide some 114,000 meals and complete 117 mud-out jobs.
But dozens of mud-out crews — representing many state disaster relief teams over the past six weeks — have only been able to complete about a fourth of the total requests for mud-out by Minot homeowners. Caison said mud-out work in Minot must be completed before the end of September, when colder temperatures come to the North Dakota area.
Southern Baptist disaster relief assets encompass 82,000 trained volunteers, including chaplains, and some 1,550 mobile units for feeding, chain saw, mud-out, command, communication, child care, shower, laundry, water purification, repair/rebuild and power generation. Southern Baptist disaster relief is one of the largest mobilizers of trained, credentialed disaster relief volunteers in the United States, including the Red Cross and Salvation Army. (BP, TAB)
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