PERRY, Fla. (BP) – Send Relief is supporting multiple state Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) teams after Hurricane Helene marched through the Southeast, impacting Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas and leaving more than 4 million without power.
Hurricane Helene made landfall after 11 p.m., Thursday, September 26, near Perry in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm and was not downgraded from hurricane strength until it reached central Georgia. As of early Friday afternoon, the death toll had risen to at least 22.
“The state SBDR directors are working with their assessors and state emergency management leaders to determine the best locations to stage the SBDR response,” said Coy Webb, Send Relief’s crisis response director.
“With these widespread outages, SBDR’s priority will first be setting up mobile kitchens to provide meals until power is restored,” Webb added. “Flood recovery and debris removal efforts will begin simultaneously but will ramp up into full force as the weekend unfolds.”
First responders throughout the Southeast have been rescuing survivors in the aftermath of the storm, and SBDR’s volunteers are moving in as authorities give the “all clear” for each community.
“I am so thankful for Florida Baptist Disaster Relief, our wonderful volunteers and Florida Baptist churches,” said Florida Baptist Convention executive director-treasurer Stephen Rummage on X. “In the wake of Hurricane Helene, we are already working to minister to the needs of affected communities, showing Jesus’ love to hurting people in this time of crisis.”
Storm surge reached 20 feet along the Florida coast in a region known informally as the “Nature Cost” that is sparsely populated. The storm shifted east and mostly avoided the state’s capital of Tallahassee but wrought havoc near Perry, where Florida SBDR will establish a feeding and recovery site at First Baptist Church. A second site will be set up at First Baptist Church in Live Oak, about 60 miles to the northeast.
The SBDR response will have a pair of feeding sites in Florida and two in Georgia partnering with Salvation Army to provide meals to survivors in impacted communities.
As assessors continue determining the needs, Send Relief is quickly releasing funds for SBDR teams to equip their response and is preparing to send resources — flood recovery supplies, rolled roofing and other materials — that will be distributed throughout the Southeast.
For Georgia, Helene has produced one of the most widespread disasters the state has ever experienced, said Dwain Carter, Georgia’s SBDR director. The center of the storm shifted east, away from its originally projected path and delivered high winds and severe flooding throughout the state.
“The whole southeast third of the state, from just west of Valdosta, up to Dublin and all the way over to Augusta and to the coast has had storm damage,” said Carter. “We have shifted our plan for where we are going to set up kitchens. We will have two feeding sites and several recovery sites set up in the next day or so.”
SBDR will set up a feeding kitchen at Northside Baptist Church in Valdosta, and Send Relief’s ministry center in Valdosta will also be supporting the recovery.
North and South Carolina also witness historic flooding and damage in the western parts of their states from Helene. SBDR leadership in the Carolinas began assessments and will establish response sites as well.
For more information and the latest updates, visit SendRelief.org/hurricane.
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