KBC Aids Evacuees, Positions Relief Units for Gulf Coast Response 08/31/2008 LOUISVILLE – As Hurricane Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast, volunteers from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief team are set to provide humanitarian relief to Louisiana evacuees stationed in Louisville. KBC volunteers are also staging a relief unit in Clinton, Miss., to enable a quick response after the storm. According to Coy Webb, disaster relief associate for the KBC, the KBC has deployed shower and feeding units to serve evacuees currently being held at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The feeding operation will begin on Monday and is based out of the South Loading Dock area. Webb said Kentucky Baptist disaster relief volunteers have been asked to “ provide 15,000 meals a day for the estimated 5,000 evacuees that began arriving Saturday evening.” Kentucky Baptists participating in the effort include volunteers from Bardstown, Elizabethtown, Guston, Lexington, Louisville, Monticello, Paducah, Radcliff, Shelbyville, Shepherdsville, Stanford and Waynesburg. The KBC’s kitchen unit will be staged at Camp Garaywa in Clinton by noon on Sept. 1 in anticipation of activation possibly as early as Sept. 2. The unit will be prepared to move to a location that will be determined after Hurricane Gustav hits the coast. Kentucky Baptists stationed with the kitchen unit headed to Clinton include volunteers from Ashland, Bowling Green, Frankfort, Greenup, Louisville, Nicholasville, Paducah, Radcliff, Russellville, Taylorsville and Springfield. According to Webb, the KBC’s response efforts are part of a larger Southern Baptist Disaster Relief initiative being executed in cooperation with the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Department of Homeland Security and other state Baptist conventions. All Southern Baptist feeding units are on alert, as Southern Baptists have been requested to provide a feeding capacity of more than 600,000 meals per day as the Gulf Coast braces for the arrival of the storm, he said. In addition to its response to Hurricane Gustav, the KBC will be sending a relief team to Gori, Georgia to provide humanitarian relief to refugees, Sept. 4-16. The team’s primary responsibility will be to provide meals to refugees displaced by the conflict between Georgia and Russia, Webb said. Contributions to the KBC’s Hurricane Gustav or Georgia relief efforts may be sent to the KBC, Dept. 5008, P.O. Box 740041, Louisville, KY 40201-9976. Please note “disaster relief” in the check memo. Online donations are also being accepted at www.kybaptist.org/dr . Kentucky Baptists are part of a larger network of Southern Baptist volunteers trained to respond to disasters by manning mass feeding operations, using chainsaws to clear downed trees and limbs, clear mud out of flooded homes and more. Together, Southern Baptists comprise the third largest relief organization in the United States. To learn more about Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief, go to www.kybaptist.org/dr . Kristie M. Randolph, Marketing & Media Relations Associate