ALEXANDRIA, La. (ABP) — The scene is like a war room. Charts cover the walls. A frazzled worker holds a desk phone to one ear and a cell phone to the other. Individuals rush about distributing information and asking questions. Computer keys rattle as information is entered and extracted. A sense of urgency fills the room.
“I have to find out the length of the airstrip to know if this plane can land there,” a haggard John Hebert explains to a volunteer on the phone. “If they can land, the man has 1,000 one-gallon gasoline cans he wants to donate. If he can land, I'm sending the cans to Hammond, and I'm trying to get some gasoline in there. We have someone talking to Exxon right now. If that comes through, I promise you, you will get gasoline.”
Here in the Katrina Relief Center of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, the war is against human suffering and death, homelessness, hunger and sickness.
“We are receiving hundreds of calls,” explained Hebert, who's in charge of the Baptist relief center. “Some are asking for help. Others are offering help.”
Almost three weeks after Hurricane Katrina destroyed coastal areas of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, displacing thousands, Baptists' largest-ever disaster response continued to grow.
Weary relief workers from 35 states were being replaced by hundreds of fresh volunteers anxious to help. In addition to the trained disaster-relief workers, willing-but-untrained church members across the South and beyond ferried supplies into the stricken area and opened their homes and churches to evacuees.
Mickey Caison of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, which coordinates volunteers from Baptist state conventions in cooperation with the American Red Cross, estimated more than 235 disaster-relief units were involved at the peak of the relief effort.
With more than 600 of the mobile units and 30,000-plus trained volunteers nationwide, the Baptist disaster-response army is the third largest relief organization in the country — after the Red Cross and Salvation Army.
Within 24 hours of the storm, the first Baptist units were on the scene, relying on several decades of relief experience.
“As soon as it was safe on Tuesday, the Mississippi disaster-relief unit was here,” said Vernon Beteler of Florence, Miss., a coordinator for the effort in Biloxi, Miss., one of the hardest-hit cities. “Now we have units from Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, and other states.”
“We are having up to 500 people in line for food at any one time,” Beteler said from the relief base at First Baptist Church of Biloxi.
The well-equipped Baptist units are trained for a variety of specialties, including mass feeding, water purification, child care, debris removal, chain-saw work, and counseling.
Jim Didlake, director of the Mississippi Baptist effort, worried about his hard-working volunteers, many themselves victims of Katrina's destruction.
“My biggest objective here is to make sure that these volunteers are taken care of so they can take care of the victims,” Didlake said while visiting the Biloxi site. “We are bringing in people from other states to relieve these people so they can go home to take care of their own families for awhile.”
“We're looking at being here for the long-term,” Didlake said. “It's possible that we will be feeding people here for as long as two months, and we may be here even longer to help feed construction and clean-up crews.”
“I've been doing this for 27 years,” said Didlake. “And I've seen enough disaster here to last a lifetime.”
Here's a partial report of state-convention relief work so far:
Mississippi
In addition to 20-plus feeding units from various state Baptist conventions at work in Mississippi, many Mississippi churches are doing their own feeding in their communities. Meanwhile, trained chain-saw crews, medical teams, cleanup groups, and child-care units from Mississippi Baptists have fanned out to in the Gulf Coast area. Chain-saw crews from the Mississippi Baptist Convention completed more than 2,400 jobs in the first two weeks.
Alabama
An estimated 10,000 hurricane evacuees — maybe more — are tucked into campgrounds, hotels, relatives' homes and shelters across Alabama. And Alabama Baptists are offering creative ways to make them feel at home. Yellow Bluff Baptist Church, Pine Hill, is renovating a small vacant motel to use as long-term housing for evacuees. “We may think, 'Gee, this isn't big enough to fool with,' but the way I see it is this is 38 families we can help,” explained pastor Morris Hill.
Charity Baptist Church in Hazel Green is joining forces with local churches to set up a long-term shelter in a cotton gin to house evacuees currently camped out in motels. The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham converted 14 of the church's modular buildings into a 102-bed dormitory.
Residents of Fultondale and surrounding communities used a vacant Winn-Dixie and an unused church building as central locations for distributing relief supplies and caring for displaced families. “We have a whole population coming our way with different needs, and we're trying to connect families with churches and agencies who can meet those needs,” said Jim Branum, director of CareNet Connection, a nonprofit ministry organization launched several months ago by First Baptist Church of Fultondale along with other area churches.
Other Alabama Baptist churches are offering up pastoriums, missionary houses and other vacant houses they own for displaced families.
Texas
More than 150 years after the Alamo, nearly 185 Mexican soldiers — armed with mobile kitchens, water purifiers and relief supplies — “invaded” San Antonio Sept. 9. They are working with Baptist volunteers from Texas and California, preparing and serving 20,000 meals a day at KellyUSA, formerly Kelly Air Force Base. Ordered to help by Mexican president Vicente Fox, the troops could stay as long as 40 days. Texas Baptist Men recently served in Mexico following Hurricane Emily.
In the first two weeks after Katrina, about 30 Texas Baptist Men feeding teams prepared more than 372,000 meals for hurricane victims in Covington, Alexandria and Hammond, La.; Biloxi, Miss.; and San Antonio and Houston. Meanwhile, the Baptist General Convention of Texas allocated $1 million to go to churches in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama that are aiding hurricane victims.
Hundreds of Texas churches are hosting a large portion of the nearly 250,000 refugees that have moved into the state. Other Texas Baptist congregations are providing supplies for Louisiana churches. Texas Baptist children's homes are accepting up to 2,000 children who fled Louisiana and Mississippi. San Antonio-based Baptist Child & Family Services also is helping individuals with special needs.
Florida
Florida Baptist relief volunteers are focusing their efforts in Hattiesburg, Miss. “I have asked them, 'Why are you here?'” said Steve Stubblefield of Hattiesburg's Main Street Baptist Church. “They said that last year our Mississippi Baptists were the first people that came to help in Florida.”
Since Aug. 31, the 250 Florida volunteers prepared and fed 35,000 meals. The volunteers also purified 3,000 gallons of water for use by the relief workers. According to news reports, 65 percent of Hattiesburg was without power and water after Katrina.
Arkansas
A feeding unit and a chain-saw unit from Arkansas were in jail in Kenner, La., where prisoners were moved out to make room for the volunteers to sleep. They were among 150 volunteers who traveled into Mississippi and Louisiana within 48 hours of the storm — three feeding units, three recovery units and a shower unit. The first wave of volunteers were replaced Sept. 6 by a second wave of 300. Chain-saw units that shared their faith while clearing trees reported more than 60 professions of faith.
Meanwhile, thousands of displaced people were traveling the other direction, pouring into Arkansas, where they found shelter in church gyms, family-life centers and other church facilities. Also the Baptist Assembly at Siloam Springs welcomed 540 evacuees and Camp Paron, about 30 miles west of Little Rock, welcomed another 150. About 10 associational and regional Baptist camps also sheltered evacuees.
North Carolina
Relief teams are working primarily in Meridian, Leakesville, Gulfport and Prentiss, Miss., and Satsumi, Ala., providing meals, water, emergency power, showers, laundry, child care, clean up and recovery.
South Carolina
Five teams are in the region, with more to be added in coming weeks. Feeding, shower, chain-saw, cleanup and HAM radio units are in place, primarily in Columbia, Miss. Another 52 teams from the state are available. “We are in this for the long haul,” said Cliff Satterwhite, Baptist relief director. “This is going to take a while.”
Georgia
All 23 disaster-relief units from the Georgia Baptist Convention are being activated — the first total deployment since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. In the first two weeks, 110,000 meals were prepared and a cumulative 2,200 work days contributed by volunteers, who are serving in Pascagoula and Lucedale, Miss., and West Wego, La.
Kentucky
At least 100 calls per day are coming in to the Kentucky Baptist Convention from individuals, churches and associations offering assistance. “I think this has really broken people's hearts and they feel the need to do something,” said the convention's Peggy Berry. At least 150 volunteers already have traveled to Mississippi. That number is expected to rise dramatically as relief work stretches as long as 90 days. Two Kentucky feeding units are in Clinton and Long Beach, Miss.
Meanwhile, Kentucky Baptist camps could get up to 200 evacuees. One church — Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington — was scheduled to host 100 evacuees.
Missouri
A feeding unit from Marshall and a shower unit Jefferson Baptist Association were set up at First Baptist Church, McComb, Miss., just days after the storm. Other shower units, chain-saw crews and feeding units soon followed. Back at home, a shelter was set at the Charleston Baptist Association camp, and other camps in Cape Girardeau and Black River Baptist associations prepared to receive evacuees.
Tennessee
Tennessee Baptists served more than 236,600 meals in Baton Rouge and Long Beach, Miss., in the first two weeks. The biggest problem was finding places to send volunteers because the devastation was so great, said David Acres, state disaster-relief director. An estimated 500 Tennessee Baptist volunteers are already in Louisiana and Mississippi, with others on standby. Volunteers have been working in temperatures reaching 100 degrees in some locations, Acres said. As of Sept. 12, the state convention had received $532,470 for relief.
Virginia
Virginia Baptists were the first relief workers to reach Picayune, Miss. They arrived Aug. 31 after waiting a day in Vicksburg for assignment. Teams served about 16,000 meals during the first day and a half. Volunteers are providing feeding, cleanup, showers, water purification and counseling.
— Based on reporting by Lacy Thompson, Dee Ann Campbell, John Hall, Tony Cartledge, Grace Thornton, Barbara Denman, Charlie Warren, Amanda Thompson, Trennis Henderson, Jim White and Bill Webb. Photos available from Associated Baptist Press.