Oklahoma Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers are departing Friday morning to establish and operate a recovery site at First Baptist Church in Morgan City, La., following the landfall of Hurricane Francine on Sept. 11.
Jason Yarbrough, Oklahoma Baptists’ disaster relief director, coordinating teams.
Francine initially battered Terrebonne Parish, an area that hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021, and then moved rapidly toward New Orleans, pounding the city with torrential rains overnight.
“Our response will be led by an Incident Management Team (IMT), and including teams for feeding, recovery (mud-out and some chainsaw), showers, laundry, assessors, and chaplains,” said Jason Yarbrough, Oklahoma Baptists’ disaster relief director. “Accompanying the IMT team will be a Strike Team hauling some of the needed equipment, including a generator trailer.”
The Category 2 storm caused widespread power outages affecting more than 275,000 residences and businesses and brought heavy rain to the Gulf Coast and a powerful storm surge that threatened coastal communities and heightened concerns of flooding. Francine was downgraded to a tropical depression on Thursday as it raced northward over Mississippi. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said heavy rain was possible in portions of Mississippi and neighboring states.
“Over the weekend our assessor/chaplain teams, feeding team, and our first recovery team(s) will head that direction,” Yarbrough said. “There is still much assessing to be done to know the full extent of damage and how long we will need to be deployed. For now, we are scheduling to be on site for the next four weeks and will adjust as additional information comes in.”
For more information, or to make a tax-deductible donation to Oklahoma Baptist DR, visit www.okdisasterhelp.org.
Feature image courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
