Georgia DR team closing down after deadly September floods
By Mickey Noah
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| Clay Road Baptist Church in Austell, Ga., sits in a sea of water. Photo by Adam Miller. |
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – A month after monsoon-like rains resulted in “500-year” flooding in west metro Atlanta, mud-out, feeding and other recovery operations are finally standing down, according to Stuart Lang, disaster relief director for the Georgia Baptist Convention.
As many as 500 mud-out jobs originally were registered, but Lang says only 25 jobs remain on Georgia disaster relief’s “to-do” list. Most unfinished jobs are in the hard-hit Austell area.
“The last of the out-of-state disaster relief teams -- from South Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee -- are still here, but they hope to go home this coming weekend,” Lang said. A Virginia recovery team left for home on Oct. 20.
“The work was mammoth, with the number of jobs and number of people volunteering,” said Lang. “We absolutely could not have done it without the other state disaster ministries coming in to help us. I’m very thankful for the Southern Baptist disaster relief family.”
Over the last month, 25 different assessment, recovery/mud-out, feeding, chaplaincy, shower, laundry, and administration teams from about a dozen state conventions traveled to the Peach State to support the 21 Georgia Baptist disaster relief units on the scene almost immediately after the torrential rains finally stopped on Sept. 22.
“We rejoice overall that we recorded 12 professions of faith during the month,” Lang said, based on 464 chaplaincy contacts, 196 Gospel presentations and 836 ministry contacts.
Working out of North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, First Baptist Church in Austell and Beulah Baptist Church in Douglasville, three disaster feeding units from Georgia prepared and served almost 32,000 meals to volunteers and flood victims during the past month. Laundry units made possible 604 laundry loads, while shower units provided 272 showers.
Lang said the last of the feeding operations at First Baptist-Austell is set to shut down by Friday.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia floods were a “once in a 500 years flood.” Weather historians had to look back to 1919 to find higher floodwaters, according to news reports. The freak flooding claimed the lives of nine Georgians and caused an estimated $250-500 million in damages.
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