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| Kentucky Relief Teams ‘On Alert’ for Iowa, Still Serving Indiana |
| Release Date: 06/19/2008 |
FRANKLIN, IND. – As Kentucky Baptist disaster relief teams continue providing aid to flood-stricken areas in Indiana, volunteers remain “on alert” while historic flooding continues to devastate much of Iowa, according to Kentucky Baptist Convention disaster relief associate Coy Webb.
Two Kentucky teams will arrive in Indiana this weekend to assist with mud-out efforts. A team of six volunteers from Elizabethtown will serve from June 20-27, and six volunteers from Christian County will serve from June 21-28.
The KBC had recently sent 19 volunteers to Franklin, Webb said, but those teams are now finished.
“We are being asked to continue serving in Indiana, but we’ll be ready to help in Iowa once the water begins to recede,” said Webb, noting that NAMB is sending volunteers from other states to provide immediate relief in Iowa.
“There are going to be tremendous needs in Iowa,” he emphasized. “But, until the waters go down, they don’t need us.”
Webb said he has heard estimates that as much as 83 percent of Iowa is flooded. Officials from the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board predicted that it could be as long as two weeks before the floodwaters recede.
At that time, Kentucky Baptist disaster relief teams will likely be called upon to do mud-out work, staff feeding teams and kitchen and shower units, as well as provide chaplaincy support, Webb indicated.
Meanwhile, a shower unit belonging to Christian County Baptist Association was destroyed June 15 while en route to Iowa. Two volunteers from Hopkinsville were pulling the unit in a trailer along an Illinois highway when high winds from a thunderstorm spun the truck around, dislodging the trailer and sending it rolling. The men were not injured in the accident, but the shower unit was totaled.
Webb said that while crews are not needed on site just yet, churches and individuals can still help with financial gifts given through NAMB or the KBC.
“They’re saying that the damage is (Hurricane) Katrina-like and financial needs are going to be similar to Katrina,” he added.
In the meantime, he urged trained disaster relief volunteers to be ready to help out when the time comes.
“We are on alert and we are anticipating Kentucky teams to be needed in the coming weeks.”
Release prepared by Kristie Randolph, KBC Communications. |
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