HURRICANE KATRINA - HOW TO RESPOND, 9/9/05 by Tommy Deal, Associate Coordinator, CBF Florida

D.A.R.T. page

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we have been hampered in getting to you the information you have needed to help lead your congregation to respond to the devastation our nation has just experienced with Hurricane Katrina. With no electricity, no phone lines and no internet connections, cell phone service was maxed out, if it had power to work at all.

VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers are needed in all areas where CBF is attempting to assist. Each site and area has different needs that are being addressed. Therefore, one central clearinghouse is needed to match volunteer abilities, availabilities and needs. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Volunteer Coordinator has been given this task. Please contact Timothy Wood, Volunteer Missions Program Manager to coordinate when, where, what, and how of your group or individual volunteers. You may email him at twood@thefellowship.info or call him toll free, 1-800-782-2451.

Volunteer Information forms will need to be filled out by each participant, as well as securing secondary insurance through Adams and Associates, Inc. There is a minimum cost of $0.75 per day per volunteer and Timothy and his staff can help you with this.

I do know that volunteer physicians, nurses, practitioners, other medical personnel and others to help with distribution are needed immediately in Gulfport and Biloxi, MS at two medical clinics that Barry Hudspeth from FBC Pensacola has helped set up. Again, contact Timothy Wood’s office to coordinate volunteers.

It is too much for those who are on the field in any of these areas to also coordinate incoming donations and volunteers. But knowing who and what is available from this “clearinghouse format” will allow the on-site leaders to know what and who is available, to request the team and know when to expect teams in. This is crucial to assure that everyone’s arrival is expected and some accommodations are made and plans are in place to efficiently use the volunteers. It bears repeating that volunteers showing up without any foreknowledge or preparation only taxes the energies of the folks coordinating the efforts and frustrates the volunteers who have taken the time, energy and resources.

Volunteers will be needed for weeks and even months to come. Please do not let potential volunteers get discouraged because they have not gone during the initial phase of operations. As we all know, this rebuilding will take a long time.

DONATIONS

The same is true with “Gifts in Kind, or GIK donations. These are items, other than cash, that are being collected by individuals and churches. Many things are needed. However, for the most part, DO NOT SEND CLOTHES unless specifically asked. Most distribution sites are not equipped nor staffed to handle the sorting and controls needed to hand out clothes. Also, if you will remember last year when Governor Bush made the statement, “The last thing folks in Florida need is your old sweaters and coats.” In Hattiesburg, we did receive a 53 foot truck of donated supplies and three-fourths of it was clothes that we could not accept and off-load.

Each site leader is to send to the Dallas office a list of needed supplies. They will also compile a list of items being collected so that the sites can request the items. Then, the donors will know where and when to ship them.

This is off of the CBF website http://www.thefellowship.info/Landing/relief.icm

To make a financial contribution:
Financial gifts for hurricane relief can be made online at www.thefellowship.info/Landing/Giving.icm , or mailed to CBF, P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, GA30392. Make checks payable to CBF and write ''Hurricane Relief Fund #17004'' in the memo line. 100% of Katrina relief funds go to assist the victims during their recovery and the ongoing development of hurricane-stricken areas.
Gifts-in-kind:
Monetary donations are the preferred type of donations. If you have items to donate, please contact Laura Cadena, Missions Partnership Relationship Manager, at (800) 782-2451 prior to collecting items. Donors are responsible for all shipping costs related to gifts in kind.

PARTNERING WITH CHURCHES

Some have asked about partnering with a church to help them regain, regroup, rebuild. There is one who will be glad to assist you with making these connections. It is Michele Deriso, Associate Coordinator for Congregational Life. You may contact her via email, mderiso@thefellowship.info or phone, 770-220-1626.

LOCAL COMMUNITY

Every congregation may very well have folks who have relocated to your mission field either by choice or by chance. Begin to develop immediately a plan to minister to them; to help meet their needs; to help them re-establish into this new community. They will need housing and employment. Children need friends and to be enrolled in schools. Individual members or an entire congregation may choose to adopt families. These are awesome days to become the presence of Christ to folks whose lives have been thrown into turmoil. We can be the light of God in this world darkened by the storm’s ravage.

I would encourage you to visit and return often to read updates from Daniel Vestal in relation to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s helping and responding to our neighbors, www.thefellowship.info/documents/dvupdate2.mht.