Disaster Relief Update - Friday, September 25, 2009

Job was asking the questions that disaster survivors ask. Folks all over north Georgia are asking these questions as they begin to sort through the damage caused by a 500 year record flood. It is this hope that disaster volunteers share.

Historic Floods in Georgia

Georgia Baptist volunteers have been working tirelessly to get a handle on the vast amount of damage. They are working to establish operations centers in Toccoa, Trion, Austell, Powder Springs and Douglasville, Georgia. These operations centers are places where homeowners can request assistance. Georgia Baptist teams have already begun the work of mudding out houses as the work assessing additional damage continues. Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief is also preparing to receive disaster relief volunteers from other states by establishing housing and feeding operations for those volunteers.

The North American Mission Board will open the Disaster Operations Center (DOC) at a level III activation beginning Saturday, September 26. Six states have already contacted NAMB to offer teams of volunteers to respond.

In partnership with the Georgia Baptist Convention, the North American Mission Board is opening a disaster call center, staffed by volunteers to receive homeowner job requests. An 800 number will be published for homeowners to call and request help. These job requests will be forwarded to the NAMB Mobile Command Post that has been setup in Douglasville. The Incident Command team will then forward these requests to the teams in the field.

As many of these homeowners make plans to get started cleaning up this weekend, the weather forecast is calling for more flash flooding in these same areas. Please remember the survivors and the volunteers who are working and traveling.