SEATTLE (BP) – Southern Baptist Disaster Relief personnel are doing all they can to help others facing the effects of historic flooding, the Northwest Baptist Convention’s state DR leader told Baptist Press today (Dec. 12).
“Some are working with local authorities to load sandbags. Others are opening their spaces, but the majority of our churches are small, so they don’t have a lot of space,” said Gary Floyd. “It all depends. We want to look at the logistics and see how we can best supply and support those communities.”
Teams are at the hurry-up-and-wait point of the response, to gather resources in anticipation of when they can go to affected areas.
A combination of heavy rains and warmer temperatures have combined for historic flooding in northwestern Washington and around Puget Sound, with conditions likely to continue for several days, said the National Weather Service.
According to the latest report by the National Weather Service, drier weather is expected across the region this weekend, but major to catastrophic flooding is likely to continue for several days across western Washington and northwestern Oregon.
Governor Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency earlier this week and urged President Donald Trump to approve an expedited emergency declaration for the area. About 100,000 people across the state are expected to be evacuated. A flash flood watch remained in effect today.
The flooding comes weeks after Alaska Baptist Disaster Relief paused work in that state from flooding cleanup in October until the spring, state director Gary Bearce posted on Facebook. Volunteers from Alaska and Texas – as well as two from Oahu who worked for two weeks – helped in the town of Bethel.
“We are guesstimating that we packed for or assisted western Alaskan evacuees in packing at least 960 boxes of commodities and other miscellaneous items,” he wrote. “The boxes must’ve included well over 1000 rolls of toilet paper and paper towels.”
Flooding in that area destroyed food packed away for the winter. Recovery, cleanup and restocking could only take place for the time being until the winter freeze, when transportation and shipping becomes extremely difficult.
Floyd cited unusually warm weather causing snow melt to join the heavy rains for the damage in his state.
Rain is nothing new, he said. Neither is flooding, and communities have contingency plans. No deaths have been reported directly caused by the flooding.
“Pray for us that our goal is to see God at work,” he said. “The ‘Why’ of our ministry is to help people recover from disaster and grow in Christ. Pray for the obvious things related to the flooding, like displacement and the impact on families and businesses. But also pray for our wisdom in caring for folks. And of course, there are things only money can help with, so give to Disaster Relief.”
Wildfires in recent years have also left many areas without intact root systems. Those not only absorb water but prevent landslides.
“The effects of this will be going on for several months,” said Floyd, talking about potential out-of-state volunteers. “If you’re called to be here to help rebuild, be open to what God says.”
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