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Friday, Oct. 11, 2002
From staff and wire reports
N.C. Baptists are clearing downed trees and washing clothes for victims of Hurricane Lili in Louisiana.
Five "chain saw teams" and a laundry team were in the state within a few days after the storm hit Oct. 3, according to Richard Brunson, executive director of N.C. Baptist Men.
The N.C. Baptist teams were working near La-Fayette, La.
The chain saw teams were helping remove downed trees from homes.
The laundry unit, a trailer containing several washers and dryers, was supporting disaster relief volunteers in Rayne, La.
Brunson said in an e-mail message that the N.C. volunteers were washing numerous loads of clothes.
"The power is out," he said. "This is a great need."
The N.C. teams were among Baptist volunteers helping out in the relief effort. Other chain saw teams, mobile kitchens and shower units from other Baptist groups also responded.
A Texas disaster relief command center unit was set up at First Baptist Church of Abbeville, where the chainsaw units were clearing trees from yards in Abbeville and the nearby towns of Kaplan and Erath. The area is just west of New Iberia and south of LaFayette.
Mickey Caison, national disaster relief coordinator and manager of adult volunteer mobilization for the North American Mission Board (NAMB), was serving as incident commander for the operation out of the Abbeville.
"The size of the response is a little larger than what I had anticipated because there are so many streets and houses damaged," Caison said. "Of course it's not as bad as if it had been a Category 4 hurricane, but that doesn't mean a lot to a person who has a 3-foot-diameter oak tree through the middle of their house."
Mobile kitchens responding to the storm include three Louisiana units that already were working in Kenner, Houma and Slidell. Additional units from Texas, Alabama and Arkansas were being opened in Alexandria, Rayne and Abbeville, respectively. Caison said the American Red Cross was distributing most of the food in neighborhoods that are without electricity and even water in many cases.
One new aspect of the response to Lili is the expanded use of mobile shower trailers, which usually contain four to six individual showers and the associated water heaters and changing space.
"This is the first operation that we will be using the showers to serve not only our people, but the government workers and the general public," said Joel Phillips, off-site coordinator for the operation and a NAMB volunteer mobilization associate.
The shower units include two NAMB-owned trailers based at First Baptist Church of Abbeville, a NAMB unit and a Tennessee unit at the Public Works Center in Abbeville, an Alabama unit at First Baptist Church of Rayne, a Georgia unit at Erath Middle School, and a Texas unit in Kaplan.
In a Mississippi response under way since Tropical Storm Isidore blew through the area in late September, a Mississippi mobile kitchen based at First Baptist Church of Biloxi had reported 3,250 meals served as of Oct. 4 and planned to conclude operations by the end of the week.
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