Baptist disaster response teams from the Mid-Atlantic have prepared hundreds of thousands of meals in the Northeast, and relief organizers said they expect recovery operations to continue into December in the region hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.
An expression of gratitude lies amid tangled limbs in New Jersey.
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“Although we’ve been told by New York officials that some of our kitchen operations may consolidate in the state, they told us to expect to continue providing meals into December,” Fritz Wilson, disaster relief executive director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, told Baptist Press.
Both Virginia Baptist Disaster Response and North Carolina Baptist Men and Women are working in the Northeast as part of long-standing collaborations among state Baptist conventions and the North American Mission Board, under the direction of the American Red Cross.
As of Nov. 11, volunteers with the collaborative efforts had served more than 670,000 meals, BP reported.
A Virginia volunteer at work in Queens, N.Y.
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Virginia Baptist Disaster Response had served more than 110,000 meals in Queens, N.Y., by Nov. 11, said Dean Miller, disaster relief coordinator for the Virginia Baptist group.
Miller said additional volunteers will be needed in the weeks ahead.
“We will continue building capacity and leadership for recovery operations in New York,” he said.
North Carolina Baptist Men and Women ended its feeding operations in New Jersey on Nov. 14, having prepared more about 250,000 hot meals. But the group has been asked to begin feeding operations in Queens at the Aqueduct Racetrack, the group posted on its Facebook page, and should begin the week of Nov. 18.
A downed tree obscures the sign of First Baptist Church in New Brunswick, N.J.
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NCBM/W continues recovery work in Piscataway, N.J., and has moved teams from Toms River, N.J., to Wall Township, about 20 miles away. Some 86 projects have been completed, the Facebook page reported.
“The sites are supported by a host of volunteers in Admin, Assessment, Maintenance, Safety, Chaplaincy, and Medical,” the post read.
Meanwhile, the District of Columbia Baptist Convention’s Emergency Response Team completed 42 chainsaw and debris removal operations in New Brunswick and Somerset, N.J., said Ricky Creech, the convention’s executive director who also coordinates the ERT.
The Nov. 8-16 project, undertaken in collaboration with the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey, involved dozens of volunteers, who were lodged at Hamilton Square (N.J.) Baptist Church, Creech said.
In Buckhannon, W.Va., where an Oct. 29 winter storm exacerbated by Sandy dumped nearly three feet of snow in some places, Virginia Baptist Disaster Response closed its feeding operations on Nov. 11 after preparing more than 22,000 meals.
On Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Miller said his organization is working closely with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management in long-term recovery efforts there.
Robert Dilday (rdilday@religiousherald.org) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.