A nor’easter whipping up the East Coast brought wind, rain and snow to New Jersey and New York yesterday, forcing Baptist disaster response units from Virginia and North Carolina to suspend feeding and recovery operations for at least a day.
The new storm disrupted attempts to restore power to homes and businesses in the region still struggling to recover from the devastation left by Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29.
Coordinators of Virginia Baptist Disaster Response and North Carolina Baptist Men and Women said they hoped to resume operations by Thursday or Friday.
Snow covered a tent housing a North Carolina Baptist Men and Women feeding unit as a nor'easter swept through New Jersey and New York.
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“The nor’easter has caused our kitchen to cease operations today,” Dean Miller, Virginia Baptist Disaster Response coordinator, said Nov. 7. The team, based in the Queens borough of New York City, “found other avenues for ministry throughout the day,” he added.
Gaylon Moss, North Carolina Baptist Men and Women disaster relief coordinator, said Nov. 7, “We have ceased cooking for now and hope to start again on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.”
NCBM/W has feeding units at three New Jersey sites — Toms River, Piscataway and the Meadowlands. A unit originally based in Atlantic City was redeployed Nov. 6 to the Meadowlands, but Moss said, “We do have a shower unit, laundry unit and chaplaincy team at the convention center in Atlantic City.”
Until operations were suspended, about 140,000 meals had been prepared by NCBM/W’s three units, Moss said.
Although almost 7,600 meals had been served by the Virginia Baptist kitchen in Queens by Nov. 6, the team was hampered by limited availability of clean water for cooking and cleaning. Miller said a water purification unit was sent to the site Nov. 6 and the situation “has been rectified.”
Virginia Baptist Disaster Response volunteers prepare to cook meals for distribution in Buckhannon, W.Va.
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The new storm didn’t deter a chainsaw and debris removal unit of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention’s emergency response team from traveling Nov. 7 to suburban Trenton, N.J., where they were to work for about five days in collaboration with the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey.
Virginia Baptist operations in Buckhannon, W.Va. — where a winter storm exacerbated by Sandy dumped nearly three feet of snow in some places — were unaffected by the nor’easter and more than 10,000 meals had been served there by Nov. 7, said Miller.
Baptist disaster relief operations in the Northeast and West Virginia are largely being conducted as part of long-standing collaborations among state Baptist conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, under the direction of the American Red Cross.
Meanwhile, Virginia Baptist Disaster Response dispatched an assessor and three-person recovery team to the state’s Eastern Shore in response to requests for assistance there. Miller said the group arrived Wednesday afternoon in Accomack County — hit hard by Sandy — and would “determine future needs” on Thursday.
Donations to assist disaster response efforts may be made through the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, North Carolina Baptist Men and Women or the D.C. Baptist Convention.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.