HOUSTON—Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) began preparing meals for those affected by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area on Sun., Sept. 3 when they prepared 5,000 meals in their large feeding unit.
DR continued preparing meals through Labor Day, totaling 10,000 meals prepared in just two days near The Woodlands. The large feeding unit can serve up to 25,000 meals if needed.
“We have set up incident command at First Baptist Church of Spring, Texas and will begin to send ‘mud-out’ teams to surrounding areas this week,” said Don Williams, state director of Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO) DR.
Williams said DR is now welcoming Oklahoma Baptist churches to serve alongside them as they work to clean up parts of northern Houston. “We have assessors out right now, and a lot of people haven’t had the chance to even come home yet, so it will be a slow start to pinpoint who we can help immediately in the area, but with the help of Southern Baptist churches in the area, among others, we will get it done,” Williams said.
DR has also established an incident command center for the Corpus Christi and Rockport areas, where Hurricane Harvey first made landfall. The heavily wooded areas have turned in more than 50 chainsaw team work orders.
Teams from neighboring states such as Arkansas are joining forces with Oklahoma chainsaw teams to clean the area quickly before Oklahoma Baptist DR relocates to the Spring, Texas area.
For the latest updates, or to make a tax-deductible donation to Oklahoma Baptist DR, visit www.OKDisasterHelp.org.
