By Baptist Message Staff
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – The first Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief teams have been activated for a response to Hurricane Helene.
Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief Associate and Volunteer Mobilizer Mark Morelock told the Baptist Message that a feeding team and a generator from the northern and central part of the state, and a chainsaw team from the southwest area of the state, arrived Sept. 28 at Brewton-Parker College, Mount Vernon, Georgia.
While there, the teams will serve students and faculty that are on campus without electricity. Statham said they will know additional details in the next couple of days about the duration of their deployment.
Louisiana joins other state conventions who have sent teams to impacted areas. Helene made landfall after 11 p.m. Sept. 26, near Perry in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm, packing winds of 140 mph.
Helene, which is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, is blamed for at least 107 deaths across six states, including 30 in Asheville, North Carolina, that was left isolated after floodwaters destroyed roads, caused a water and food shortage and knocked out cell phone service and electricity to much of the town.
Moody’s Analytics expects the storm to have caused between $15 billion and $26 billion in property damage while AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate of the economic loss and overall damage is between $95 billion and $110 billion.
The Baptist Paper, a multi-media news outlet in partnership with other state Baptist publications, reported that Ridgecrest Conference Center, Black Mountain, North Carolina, temporarily closed over the weekend after some of its facilities were left damaged and under water. The conference center formerly was owned by Lifeway Christian Resources.
More than 400 roads remained closed over the weekend in North Carolina as floodwaters began to recede, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
In Erwin, Tennessee, a helicopter rescued dozens of staff and patients from the rooftop of Unicoi County Hospital.
The Baptist and Reflector, the news outlet of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, reported that several churches in the state sustained damage: Enon Baptist Church, located between Johnson City and Greeneville and just yards from the Nolichucky River, was flooded; and Riverview Baptist Church, Newport.
Faith Baptist Church in Perry, Florida, was among the churches damaged. Despite having standing water and tree debris on its grounds, the church opted to worship outside, according to the AP.
The storm damaged several churches in Georgia, according to the Christian Index, the newsjournal of the Georgia Mission Board. Those included First Baptist Church Hazlehurst, which lost its steeple; Greenwood Baptist Church, Valdosta, where several branches of trees penetrated the sanctuary roof; New Canaan Baptist Church, in Rome, which took in water in its worship center; and Pinnacle Retreat Center, Clayton, which lost several trees and had minor flooding in its gym.
“From everything I am hearing, the situation is dire in western North Carolina,” Louisiana Baptist Executive Director Steve Horn told the Baptist Message. “These folks need our prayers and our help. As horrifying as these events are, we have the opportunity to show the world the best of who we are as Southern Baptists.”
To give to DR efforts, visit https://louisianabaptists.org/about/teams/missions-ministry/disaster-relief/donate/
