Photo: Salvation Army
MOUNT JULIET — Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief teams have been asked to respond in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Texas and to extreme flooding which occurred in Iowa in late June.
Hurricane Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Matagorda around 4:30 a.m. July 8, about 95 miles southwest of Houston, according to multiple news reports.
The storm pummeled coastal areas like Galveston as well as the outskirts of Houston, America’s fourth-largest metro area. Nearly three million people were left without electricity.
As of July 10, about 1.7 million people in Texas were still without power according to Reuters. The death toll in Texas climbed to at least 11.
Heavy rains in late surged rivers in Iowa to record-breaking levels, breaching levees and impacting thousands of home in northwest Iowa, according to Wes Jones, Tennessee Baptist disaster relief specialist.
Jones said trained chainsaw teams are needed in Texas along with trained flood recovery teams in Iowa. Both states need volunteers immediately, he added. “We want to be able to send teams to both locations.”
Jones said teams will not know complete details for either state until they confirm they will respond.
Teams are asked to include a chaplain or if they do not have one, they can contact Tennessee Baptist DR.
“Summer is always one of the hardest times for responses due to extreme heat in many locations across the United States,” Jones observed. “But it is almost the best time to show the love of Christ to people who desperately need it after a life-changing event,” he added.
Jones asked Tennessee Baptists to pray for the people in Iowa and Texas affected by the recent disasters as well as teams that will be traveling to various locations in those states. “Pray also that those who do not know Christ will come to know him through the efforts of our volunteers,” he added.
Teams willing to respond should contact Tennessee DR at wjones@tnbaptist.org; eholmes@tnbaptist.org and gmaddox@tnbaptist.org.
Donations to Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief can be made at tndisasterrelief.org/contributions. Click on either the “Hurricane” or “Floods” option.
— This article includes reporting by editor Lonnie Wilkey and Baptist Press.
