This story will be updated as additional information is available.
Faith-based groups are lining up to provide short- and long-term aid to Hurricane Harvey’s victims.
But other groups, like the Salvation Army and Texas Baptist Men, are already operating in flooded areas, providing food, showers and other emergency services.
On its website, the Salvation Army said it has 42 mobile kitchens and two field kitchens feeding hurricane victims.
“The organization also has disaster leadership teams based in San Antonio, Galveston/Texas City, Houston and Corpus Christi — close to Rockport, where Hurricane Harvey made landfall.”
TBM has been busy, too.
On its Facebook page, the ministry said it has been asked to provide feeding units in locations like Victoria, Robstown and southwest Houston.
It is also accompanying a federal disaster task force team conducting search-and-rescue operations. TBM is tasked with feeding that team, other first-responders, local shelters and other residents.
“Hurricane Harvey will be our largest Texas response in the 50-year history of TBM,” the organization said in a Facebook post.
Long-term response
Meanwhile, organizations that specialize in long-term recovery are lining up funds, materials and volunteers for future work in Texas.
The Atlanta-based Cooperative Baptist Fellowship issued a statement saying its disaster officials are monitoring the situation in Texas and are prepared to provide support when partners in the religion ask for it.
The CBF also said it is communicating with state and federal disaster agencies with which it has cooperated in past disasters.
CBF disaster relief focuses primarily in long-term response. As a result, Fellowship efforts at recovery often last months and even years — long after media and the rest of the nation have moved on.
“We are in contact with all of our partners and are ready to receive updates and requests for assistance and aid,” Alan Williams, coordinator of CBF’s U.S. Disaster Response, said in the statement. “We have worked with these partners over many years and, together, we stand in solidarity with those in the path of this storm.”
And the response has by no means been limited to Baptist organizations.
A family evacuates their Meyerland home in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help Sunday as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey rose high enough to begin filling second-story homes, and authorities urged stranded families to seek refuge on their rooftops. (Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Also waiting the green light to enter the impacted area is Samaritan’s Purse. Its website announced the organization had prepositioned materials and trucks in the Dallas area.
A Presbyterian News Service story reported Sunday that Presbyterian Church (USA) responders are gearing up for action.
“Our hearts break and rise up in prayer for the people of Texas,” Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Director Laurie Kraus said in the article. “Right now, we need the church’s prayers and financial assistance.”
Catholic Charities and a number of dioceses and parishes “are quickly organizing” to respond to Harvey and the flooding, Catholic News Service reported.
“Catholic Charities USA, as well as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services, announced early on Aug. 26 that they’re mobilizing to help an as-yet-unknown number of persons affected by the hurricane,” according to the CNS report.
Episcopal Relief and Development also has begun receiving donations for work in the state.
“We want to emphasize that we need to wait until the danger has passed to make our response so as not to complicate further the ongoing rescue operations,” said Andy Doyle, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, based on Houston.