Disaster Relief

With the devastating scale of this year’s hurricane destruction filling the news, human efforts to help can feel futile. That feeling of despair and the inability to do something eventually gives way to a much more tolerable feeling of apathy, which I believe characterizes the attitudes of many college students like me.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) — Buddy heaters, blankets and winter clothing are among the items being distributed by Baptists to those dealing with western North Carolina’s first cold blast of the season amid recovery from Hurricane Helene.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. – Like many churches in the path of Hurricane Milton, Tri-City Baptist Church in Punta Gorda was hit hard. On Friday, Oct. 11, the morning after the storm, volunteers from the church began dry-out efforts from storm flooding. By Sunday, they were feeling tired and weary.

GADSDEN, Ala. (BP) – News of Hurricane Helene’s devastation in the Carolinas began to spread when a group text message among seven Christian pilots that fly out of the Gadsden, Ala., airport kickstarted a plan to send help to storm survivors.

Over the past month, there have been a series of country-wide blackouts across Cuba. These blackouts mean 8.5 million people are without electricity. They cannot store food, charge their phones, refrigerate medicine, or even pump water from wells. We, in partnership with Send Relief and the Eastern and Western Baptist Conventions, feed thousands of people through kitchens located in local churches.

GRANMA, Cuba – Two back-to-back earthquakes rocked Eastern Cuba Sunday, Nov. 10, creating widespread damage in areas of the island nation still recovering from Category 1 Hurricane Oscar, which struck Eastern Cuba Oct. 20, and Category 3 Hurricane Rafael, which made landfall in Western Cuba near the province of Artemisa Nov. 6.

HAVANA, Cuba – As Eastern Cuba continues to dig out from the devastation of Category 1 Hurricane Oscar, which unleashed its fury on the island nation Oct. 20, Western Cuba has now been hit hard by Category 3 Hurricane Rafael, which made landfall near the Cuban province of Artemisa Nov. 6.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) – Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief Director Ron Crow said it was not a surprise to him that the request for 100 generators to aid those in North Carolina was answered so quickly.

NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio (BP) — When it comes to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, the physical nature of the work calls for strong bodies. However, it also calls for experience and maturity useful in ministering to those days or even hours removed from a natural disaster. And as said natural disasters don’t schedule their arrival, you need volunteers with at least some flexibility in their schedule.

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Six ladies from the Russellville area recently donned yellow shirts, chaps and other safety equipment, picked up chainsaws and went to work in Valdosta, Georgia.