Many Oklahoma DR volunteers had to be recalled from Colorado, where they had been responding to wildfires in that state since July. Colorado crews will be replenished by volunteers from Texas Baptist Men and the Southern Baptist Convention of Texas. Porter plans on completing all ash-out work in Oklahoma by Aug. 31. It takes a full day for a team to "ash-out" a house, he said. Fritz Wilson, NAMB's executive DR director, said the widespread need for DR volunteers demonstrates the necessity of NAMB's new command center and DR equipment. "It benefits both the emerging state conventions and the mainline states," Wilson said. In addition to wildfires, Wilson said mid-August remains the peak of the hurricane season, which doesn't end until Nov. 30. Southern Baptists who want to support the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma's Oklahoma Wildfire Relief fund can visit www.bgco.org and click on the disaster relief button. From its disaster operations center in Alpharetta, Ga., NAMB coordinates and manages Southern Baptist responses to major disasters in partnership with the 42 Southern Baptist state conventions, most of which also have state-based DR programs. SBDR assets include 82,000 trained volunteers, including chaplains, and some 1,550 mobile units for feeding, chainsaw, mud-out, command, communication, childcare, showers, laundry, water purification, repair/rebuild and power generation. SBDR is one of the largest mobilizers of trained, credentialed DR volunteers in the United States. Mickey Noah writes for the North American Mission Board. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress ) and in your email ( baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp). Copyright (c) 2012 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press www.BPNews.net |