To provide physical, emotional, and spiritual help to victims of natural and man-made disasters, including floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and terrorist attacks, in North America and overseas
Affiliation:
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is a partnership ministry of the state Baptist conventions and the North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention.
Resources:
Approximately 1,500 mobile units (feeding, chainsaw, mud-out, command, communication, child care, shower, laundry, water purification, repair/rebuild, generators, and others) To see 2008 Fleet Report, click here.
More than 83,000 trained volunteers, including 2,377 trained disaster relief chaplains
Disaster relief units are owned and staffed by Southern Baptist churches, regional Baptist associations, and state Baptist conventions. Volunteer teams respond to disasters within their own state and work cooperatively with other states in larger emergencies. Teams also work overseas when Baptist Global Response requests help.
History:
The first Southern Baptist Disaster Relief response took place in 1967 when a small group of Texas volunteers helped victims of Hurricane Beulah by serving hot food cooked on small "buddy burners."
Forty years later, in 2007, Southern Baptist volunteers prepared over one million meals. Click here for complete 2007 activity report. All assistance is provided to individuals and communities free of charge.
NAMB Disaster Operation Center (DOC) Report: The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief national response continues in Iowa with sites in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, and Wapello. Feeding, mudout, recovery, shower, laundry, child care, assessment, and chaplain units/teams are activated. Operations in Illinois and Indiana have closed. Tennessee teams are assisting in Wisconsin for the next three weeks. To date approximately 25 state conventions have been involved in the Midwest Flood response. The DOC continues to operate seven days a week.
Activity Count as of July 15
Volunteer Days
7,127
Meals
289,728
Mudout
314
Chainsaw
43
Children
191
Showers
3,590
Laundry Loads
2,125
Messages (Ham Radio)
9
Chaplain Contacts
2,032
Professions of Faith
27
Ministry Contacts
1,913
Iowa Incident Command Team
Headquarters: Iowa Baptist Convention, Des Moines
DR State Director: Ty Berry
Incident Commander: Mark Gauthier
Administration Officer: Kim Gauthier
Operations and Logistics Officer: Tom Long
Liaison Officer: Tom Griffith
Chaplain Coordinator: Al Banner
Site Commander in Cedar Rapids: Jim Whitworth
Commander in Wapello: Jim Weickersheimer
Site Commander in Waterloo: Mark Roberts
California Fires
California Baptist Disaster Relief is responding to the fires with cleanup units in Aptos and Paradise. Utah-Idaho is assisting at this time.
Operation Noah Rebuild
Operation Noah Rebuild is a three-year project (through August 2009) in the New Orleans area that is using volunteer labor to rehab more than 1,000 homes and 20 churches. It is a partnership project between the New Orleans churches, New Orleans associations, Louisiana Baptist Convention, and the North American Mission Board. Skilled and unskilled workers are needed to help with roofs, dry wall installation, electrical work, plumbing, painting, building, etc. Teams from Southern Baptist organizations and other faith-based organizations are invited to volunteer. This includes church groups, student groups, campus groups, etc. Teams should consist of at least four members. Larger groups are welcome and may be given multiple job assignments. The Noah office is in the Algiers section of New Orleans next to Calvary Baptist Church. It is handling registration of volunteer teams and job requests.
