With the arrival of Hurricane Idalia in Florida’s Big Bend area, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams began assessing the damage in preparation for a response. “We have been in touch with SBDR leaders in the storm’s path and been involved in preparations,” Coy Webb, Crisis Response director for Send Relief, told Baptist Press Aug. 30. […]
As the reported death toll from wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui increases to more than 90, Southern Baptists are already meeting immediate needs and preparing for an upcoming relief response. Wildfires mainly affecting the western part of Maui, surrounding a culturally significant area known as Lahaina Town, began Wednesday, Aug. 9. Fires continue to […]
A generational rainstorm that put downtown streets under two feet of water stopped inches short of the steps to Enough Ministries. “We were just high enough to avoid it,” Pastor Dan Molind told Baptist Press. Many others weren’t as fortunate. At least 10 Southern Baptist churches have sustained damage, said Molind, who is also the […]
Mickey Caison and his team of South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers were exhausted when they pulled into First Baptist Church of Homestead, Fla., on the evening of Aug. 25, 1992, just one day after Hurricane Andrew barreled into South Florida with winds of around 141 miles per hour. The team had arrived in the […]
The entire island of Puerto Rico lost power over the weekend as Hurricane Fiona brought havoc on Sunday, Sept. 18. Send Relief pre-positioned its response ahead of the storm’s landfall and has begun assessing the need. “Fiona whipped across southwest Puerto Rico and knocked out the fragile electrical system,” said Coy Webb, Send Relief’s crisis […]
Twenty years after spending weeks in what could only be called a war zone, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are reflecting on their experience working in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and how it affected their lives. Sam Porter is the national director for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief for Send Relief with the North American […]
Louisiana received a “gut punch” Oct. 9, as the second hurricane in six weeks made landfall in the state. The eye of Hurricane Delta crashed ashore at 5 p.m. as a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph in Creole, nearly 13 miles east of Cameron, where Laura made landfall as a […]
A little more than a week after slamming the Louisiana coast on Aug. 27, it was obvious Hurricane Laura’s 140 mph Category 4 winds considered nothing sacred, including houses of worship. Media reports told of hundreds of thousands of Louisianans who were left without power and water, perhaps for weeks. In many communities, cars have […]
Hurricane Dorian made landfall Sept. 6 in northeast North Carolina as a Category 1 storm at Cape Hatteras as first responders in the Bahamas worked to reach survivors after the storm’s devastating visit to those islands. Southern Baptists are serving on both fronts. As the storm traveled up the east coast, flash flooding occurred in […]
Hurricane season is here, and South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief teams from across the state are preparing to respond when and if they are needed. “Near the end of each summer, we gather as many of our unit leaders (blue hats) as possible for a day of training, debriefing, and discussion of what we may […]