Photo via sciam.com

Baptists gear up to prepare 600,000 meals a day as Gustav nears

As Gustav nears, the American Red Cross and Salvation Army have asked Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers to prepare for the worst, reports Jeremy Reynalds, correspondent for ASSIST News Service.

“But hope for the best,” said Mickey Caison, director of the Southern Baptist's North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) adult mobilization team, speaking in an article by Adam Miller and published on the NAMB web site.

NAMB reported the organizations’ requests for feeding capacity has now doubled from 310,000 meals per day to more than 600,000 as the Gulf Coast braces for the possibility of a Category 4 Gustav, which is now somewhere between a tropical storm and hurricane status, and moving slowly toward the Gulf but picking up power.

According to NAMB, 113 of 115 Southern Baptist Disaster Relief feeding units have been put on alert to mobilize along the Gulf Coast states for a day or two in the wake of hurricane landfall.

A still-wounded Gulf Coast is bracing for Gustav’s onslaught.

NAMB said that several larger shelters are ready in Texas, where four Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief feeding units have deployed. Other sites will be determined as landfall nears.

Most shelter areas will probably be stationed in Texas, northern Louisiana and Jackson, Miss.

Because of revised evacuation plans since Katrina, most shelter and feeding will take place further away from disaster locations, though SBDR recovery units will still move in to clear roadways and, later, affected communities.

According to NAMB, many Gulf Coast areas will evacuate this weekend. New Orleans has planned for a mandatory evacuation, and is bringing in busses for 30,000 people who lack transportation. Places as far north as Oklahoma City are preparing for as many as 2,500 evacuees.

As SBDR coordinators work with local, state and federal agencies to determine the extent of damage and the need following the storm, most SBDR units will be assigned to the states they managed following Katrina.

NAMB said that as Tropical Storm Hanna continues to track toward the Bahamas, a number of SBDR units are being put on alert in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, in case that storm takes a northward turn. Those conventions will divide their resources between affected areas depending on severity.

“While we may not be able to utilize entire units, we can make use of volunteers from several units to help fill in and replenish and time and need require,” said Terry Henderson, NAMB’s Disaster Relief Consultant, speaking in the NAMB story.

The Illinois and Minnesota-Wisconsin Disaster Relief Units are staying in place in case needs arise related to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, but will join up with coastal efforts later.

“As soon as we can get the wind down low enough to travel we’ll go in,” said Caison, speaking in the story. He added that volunteers are already preparing food at pre-event shelters in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.

NAMB said that with 85,000 trained disaster relief volunteers and 1,500 disaster relief units, Southern Baptists are among the three largest disaster relief organizations in the nation.

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[09/02/2008]

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