Oh to be as prepared as Southern Baptist Disaster Relief

Here's their latest email update:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight”. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief continues to plan for Hurricane Gustav. For the second time in three years the worst-case-scenario could be in store for the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Southern Baptists, along with our national partners, are planning for and anticipating the worst.

Terry Henderson and an Incident Command Team are en route to Camp Garaywa, located in Clinton, Mississippi. Camp Garaywa is owned and operated by the Woman’s Missionary Union of Mississippi. Also staging at Camp Garaywa will be mobile units that will move to the coast as soon as appropriate assessments take place. A second Incident Command Team is in route to Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, Louisiana.

Southern Baptist liaisons are located at the National Headquarters for American Red Cross and the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D. C. They will assist in providing close coordination and communication with these agencies. American Red Cross has also provided a liaison to the North American Mission Board’s Disaster Operation Center (DOC) located in Alpharetta, Ga.

Meals are currently being prepared by Southern Baptist Feeding Units at shelters housing evacuees in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and, Texas. Chaplains are serving with the Feeding Units to provide ministry and support for the evacuees and volunteers.

A combined capacity of more than 575,000 meals per day has been activated and has begun moving toward the anticipated impact area. A total of 39 Feeding Units from 23 Baptist state conventions are moving toward the central Gulf Coast and are expected to arrive over the next three days. Each Feeding Unit will be accompanied by chainsaw, communication, and shower units as well as Disaster Relief trained chaplains. A conservative estimate is that more than 4,000 Southern Baptist volunteers will be traveling with these units.

Ministry sites in the Gulf Coast area have been pre-identified by state Baptist convention, American Red Cross and Salvation Army leaders. Once Hurricane Gustav has cleared the area, Disaster Relief leaders will assess the viability of these sites to provide accommodations for units and volunteers after which units will be deployed to begin ministry to persons impacted by the storm.

While the east coast state Baptist conventions are continuing to watch Hurricane Hanna, they are also releasing assets to respond to Gustav’s affected area. State Baptist conventions located in the Northern, upper Midwestern and northwestern United States are expected to be in the second phase of deployment. Following Hurricane Gustav’s landfall and assessments provide by Southern Baptist leaders and our partners decision will be made about future deployments.

NAMB’s DOC has moved to a Level IV, the highest activation. NAMB staff and volunteers will be manning phones and entering data to support the affected and responding state convention units. Tomorrow’s hours of operation for the DOC will be 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Day Light Savings Time.

Florida Baptist Convention continues to respond to needs caused by Hurricane Fay. The response have move to local area churches and associations ministering in their area with Florida Baptist Convention’s leadership closing their command centers.