2012 Hurricane Sandy

EDISON, N.J. (BP) -- On the 11th day after landfall of Hurricane Sandy, more than 750 Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers were continuing to aid survivors in hard-hit communities. Their work has not gone unnoticed. Craig Fugate, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, voiced appreciation to SBDR leaders in a conference call Nov. 7 for their response to Sandy. "Thanks to everyone," said Craig Fugate, FEMA administrator. "It has been a busy time. The president and the rest of the team appreciate Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. This will not be a short response. We still have a lot to do. Until people are back in their homes, Southern Baptist [volunteers] will be needed. Thank you for all that Southern Baptist Disaster Relief has done." Coordinating logistics with FEMA, the American Red Cross (ARC), The Salvation Army, state and local governments is a daily task for SBDR leaders. The North American Mission Board routinely maintains representation at the FEMA and ARC national headquarters for the duration of large-scale disaster responses such as Sandy. The recognition of that service came quickly from another government leader in the hard-hit community of Middletown, N.J., this week, Gov. Chris Christie. "Ah, my friends with disaster relief," the New Jersey governor said when he met SBDR volunteers from Oklahoma serving in Middletown Nov. 5. Christie thanked the volunteers for their service and sacrifice on behalf of the people of his state. SBDR volunteers who were among the first responders to Sandy will begin heading home soon. Replacement teams will begin arriving this weekend and into next week. One of those units is a Tennessee recovery team, which completed its 18th job Friday in the Norwalk, Ct., area. Maryland-Delaware incident commander Carl Brill reported an interesting occurrence in Crisfield, Md., where local leaders developed a system to collect needs and communicate them to volunteers. "They are using white towels to identify homes where help is needed," Brill said. ...

TUCKERTON, N.J. (BP) -- The 16-member chainsaw crew had stopped for supper at a restaurant just outside Tuckerton, N.J., having driven all day from Cross Central Church in Lexington, S.C., to help survivors of Hurricane Sandy. [QUOTE@left@100="This guy was so excited that he was screaming out, 'I love you, Jesus.’" ]Team leader Alan Giddens offered to help a certain storm survivor at the restaurant who said he was fine, directing the team to those in more need, Giddens said. "The next morning we're in this neighborhood working and I look up and he's standing behind me. And you can just look at him and see, he's just, he's out of energy. And I turned around and spoke to him," Giddens said. "He said, 'I told you last night I didn't need any help.' But he said, 'My body's broken.' He said, 'I can't go anymore. I need your help.' He said, 'I'm a very proud man, but ... I need you.'" Giddens said the man, 51 and strong, cried as he related his plight, expressing surprise and wonder that the crew was there to help. In what Giddens described as a providential meeting, the New Jersey man told the crew he had lost everything. His New Jersey coastal community home that had housed four generations of his family suffered four feet of saltwater as Sandy churned Tuckerton Bay ashore. He had no hurricane insurance. The crew encouraged the man to go home and rest, Giddens said, and made arrangements to include his home in the day's recovery work. As is the group's custom, they offered to pray with the man before beginning to work on his home that evening. "We prayed with [him] and [he] broke down and he said, 'I want what you guys have,' and we shared the Gospel with him," Giddens said. "And he said, 'I can't do that. I've been bad in my life. I can't. There's no way I can go to heaven.' "Of course we shared with him we've all been bad. We've all sinned. We sin every day. But Jesus died on that cross for our sins and that He forgives us," Giddens said. The man accepted Jesus. "This guy was so excited that he was screaming out, 'I love you, Jesus,'" Giddens said. "He even called his friend on the phone and he said, 'I just had to call and tell you I just accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior,' and he said, 'And you need to too.'" The Cross Central Church recovery team arrived in New Jersey on Halloween and began work the next day, clearing debris, damaged furniture and fallen trees from homes and streets in Tuckerton, Little Egg Harbor Township and Absecon. Like the man they encountered at the restaurant, the people generally were slow to accept help, Giddens said. "The first day we got a lot of, 'No, we're OK. We don't need help,' ... because that part of the country is not used to seeing yellow shirts," Giddens said, referring to the common uniform on Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and recovery volunteers. "By about the second day ... people started coming up and thanking us for being there, just going out of their way to thank us." The team helped 29 families.

TUCKERTON, N.J. (BP) -- The 16-member chainsaw crew had stopped for supper at a restaurant just outside Tuckerton, N.J., having driven all day from Cross Central Church in Lexington, S.C., to help survivors of Hurricane Sandy. [QUOTE@left@100="This guy was so excited that he was screaming out, 'I love you, Jesus.’" ]Team leader Alan Giddens offered to help a certain storm survivor at the restaurant who said he was fine, directing the team to those in more need, Giddens said. "The next morning we're in this neighborhood working and I look up and he's standing behind me. And you can just look at him and see, he's just, he's out of energy. And I turned around and spoke to him," Giddens said. "He said, 'I told you last night I didn't need any help.' But he said, 'My body's broken.' He said, 'I can't go anymore. I need your help.' He said, 'I'm a very proud man, but ... I need you.'" Giddens said the man, 51 and strong, cried as he related his plight, expressing surprise and wonder that the crew was there to help. In what Giddens described as a providential meeting, the New Jersey man told the crew he had lost everything. His New Jersey coastal community home that had housed four generations of his family suffered four feet of saltwater as Sandy churned Tuckerton Bay ashore. He had no hurricane insurance. The crew encouraged the man to go home and rest, Giddens said, and made arrangements to include his home in the day's recovery work. As is the group's custom, they offered to pray with the man before beginning to work on his home that evening. "We prayed with [him] and [he] broke down and he said, 'I want what you guys have,' and we shared the Gospel with him," Giddens said. "And he said, 'I can't do that. I've been bad in my life. I can't. There's no way I can go to heaven.' "Of course we shared with him we've all been bad. We've all sinned. We sin every day. But Jesus died on that cross for our sins and that He forgives us," Giddens said. The man accepted Jesus. "This guy was so excited that he was screaming out, 'I love you, Jesus,'" Giddens said. "He even called his friend on the phone and he said, 'I just had to call and tell you I just accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior,' and he said, 'And you need to too.'" The Cross Central Church recovery team arrived in New Jersey on Halloween and began work the next day, clearing debris, damaged furniture and fallen trees from homes and streets in Tuckerton, Little Egg Harbor Township and Absecon. Like the man they encountered at the restaurant, the people generally were slow to accept help, Giddens said. "The first day we got a lot of, 'No, we're OK. We don't need help,' ... because that part of the country is not used to seeing yellow shirts," Giddens said, referring to the common uniform on Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and recovery volunteers. "By about the second day ... people started coming up and thanking us for being there, just going out of their way to thank us." The team helped 29 families.

NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- Southern Baptist Disaster Relief units escaped significant damage from the nor'easter that dumped up to a foot of snow in various areas of the Northeast.

NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- Southern Baptist Disaster Relief units escaped significant damage from the nor'easter that dumped up to a foot of snow in various areas of the Northeast.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (BP) -- Back in the winter when New York City tried to push churches out of public schools, Crossroads Church on Staten Island didn't know God was moving them to a new location that later would be right up the block from some of the most severe devastation left by Hurricane Sandy.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (BP) -- Back in the winter when New York City tried to push churches out of public schools, Crossroads Church on Staten Island didn't know God was moving them to a new location that later would be right up the block from some of the most severe devastation left by Hurricane Sandy.

MIDDLETOWN, N.J. (BP) -- Election Day dawned with Hurricane Sandy storm survivors voting in tents -- along with a reminder of the preparation of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers. Prior to Sandy's landfall, SBDR area commander Mark Gauthier reminded state DR leaders to make sure deploying volunteers voted absentee before they traveled to begin ministry. The day also brought continued meal preparation at more than 16 locations and increased mud-out jobs, with more requests mounting. The previous day, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie commended yellow-shirted Baptist volunteers in Middletown, N.J. North American Mission Board DR executive director Fritz Wilson, meanwhile, said the Sandy response will continue well into the new year. Middletown has become one of the hubs of SBDR ministry where volunteers, primarily from Oklahoma thus far, are being hosted by New Monmouth Baptist Church and pastor Mike Miller. "This is an unusual operation," said Dave Karr, on-site coordinator for the Middletown response. "Things have not progressed the way they normally do in a disaster setting. Local people are finding their way to shelters and the church members here are finding out what they need. The local shelters have told us how many meals they need and the church members are delivering the meals to the shelters." Karr, a six-year DR veteran, is accompanied by some 90 Oklahoma SBDR volunteers to operate a three-station kitchen capable of preparing 35,000 meals a day, a shower unit, a laundry unit, three chain saw units and a mud-out unit. Karr, a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Norman, Okla., said nothing has been typical about this response. Karr and his team received word Monday that Gov. Christie would be visiting a nearby firehouse. "We decided we'd take a look," Karr said.

MIDDLETOWN, N.J. (BP) -- Election Day dawned with Hurricane Sandy storm survivors voting in tents -- along with a reminder of the preparation of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers. Prior to Sandy's landfall, SBDR area commander Mark Gauthier reminded state DR leaders to make sure deploying volunteers voted absentee before they traveled to begin ministry. The day also brought continued meal preparation at more than 16 locations and increased mud-out jobs, with more requests mounting. The previous day, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie commended yellow-shirted Baptist volunteers in Middletown, N.J. North American Mission Board DR executive director Fritz Wilson, meanwhile, said the Sandy response will continue well into the new year. Middletown has become one of the hubs of SBDR ministry where volunteers, primarily from Oklahoma thus far, are being hosted by New Monmouth Baptist Church and pastor Mike Miller. "This is an unusual operation," said Dave Karr, on-site coordinator for the Middletown response. "Things have not progressed the way they normally do in a disaster setting. Local people are finding their way to shelters and the church members here are finding out what they need. The local shelters have told us how many meals they need and the church members are delivering the meals to the shelters." Karr, a six-year DR veteran, is accompanied by some 90 Oklahoma SBDR volunteers to operate a three-station kitchen capable of preparing 35,000 meals a day, a shower unit, a laundry unit, three chain saw units and a mud-out unit. Karr, a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Norman, Okla., said nothing has been typical about this response. Karr and his team received word Monday that Gov. Christie would be visiting a nearby firehouse. "We decided we'd take a look," Karr said.

LUMBERTON, N.J. (BP) -- Serving as a command center for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers has offered Southside Baptist Church in Lumberton, N.J., rich opportunities for fellowship with other believers, said Fernando Downs, pastor of the 150-member congregation.