FRANKLIN — Continuing their response efforts after Hurricane Helene’s devastating output, Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief will be setting up two incident command posts in the coming days.
One post will be stationed at First Baptist Church, Dandridge, and Tennessee volunteers will be working out of that area covering Jefferson and Cocke counties. TBDR will be feeding with Salvation Army, and Tennessee chain saw and flood recovery teams will be working out of that site.
An additional incident command post will be set up in Johnson City, covering Washington and Unicoi Counties. Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, is still working on determining the location for this post. Texans on Mission will operate that incident command and the feeding area, and the Salvation Army will also be working with the feeding team. Tennessee chain saw and flood recovery teams will be working out of that site also.
TBDR teams have been busy throughout the past several days (see related stories HERE and HERE), providing aid to those impacted by the storm.
Eight shower/laundry units have been deployed and are active with more on the way primarily in Washington and Unicoi counties. Local units are doing tree removal, with roughly 80 to 100 jobs completed thus far.
The swift water rescue team has been rescuing people in the Erwin area, with chain saw and flood recovery teams will most likely start serving in these areas by the middle of this week.
Those who are available to serve should contact Wes Jones (wjones@tnbaptist.org), Garry Maddox (gmaddox@tnbaptist.org) or Elizabeth Holmes (eholmes@tnbaptist.org) and let them know your unit type and when you are available to come. Once a team has committed to serve, details will be sent, Jones said.
Donations to Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief can be made online at tndisasterrelief.org/contributions. Click the “Hurricane Fund” option. B&R
