Limestone Baptist group helping Texas flood victims

Aug. 29--Among the moving photographs that have emerged so far from flood-ravaged southern Texas so far are:

--A roomful of men and women sitting in waist-deep floodwater waiting to be rescued from a nursing home;

--A little boy perched on his kitchen countertop holding his sock monkey while floodwaters circle below;

--A woman carrying her dog on her shoulders making her way through the dangerous floodwaters; and

--A preacher laying on a nearly submerged SUV checking for people in need of rescue.

Hurricane Harvey waylaid southeast Texas on Aug. 25, leaving catastrophic flooding in its wake. Eight people have died as of Monday afternoon. More heavy rain is expected through the end of the week, which could put the area at nearly 50 inches, the largest recorded total in the state's history.

Some 4,000 National Guard troops have been deployed to help with relief efforts and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has 5,000 employees working in Texas, according to the Washington Post.

Among those heading to Texas to help the displaced are members of Limestone Baptist Disaster Relief.

This well-trained, seasoned group is preparing to head to Texas next week.

"We will send a group of volunteers and they will stay seven to 10 days and return, then another group will go," said Bob Lovell, associate coordinator for LBDR. "We will also have some administrative people there continually."

LBDR has more than 80 volunteers in Limestone County, he said.

There are about 200 volunteers in Madison County and a similar number in Morgan County. But, they all work for the state Alabama Baptist Association.

"Alabama (Baptist Association) will be sending someone within the week to three feeding units and we will have people going to replace people periodically to do feeding," Lovell said.

"Once the water has receded, we can do cleanup and mold and mildew remediation."

The state Baptist association coordinates relief efforts with the Texas Baptist relief organization to determine the number of missions, the number of people and where they are assigned.

"We respond locally first, in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and we also get deployed by the state chapter and work with the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross," Lovell said.

The Limestone volunteers are well-prepared for such missions. They meet the third Tuesday of every month to prepare for disasters such as the flooding in south Texas.

"Locally, we worked the tornadoes of 2011 and 2015," Lovell said.

First they provide cooking, because displaced people in a disaster area, including emergency workers, don't have access to food and even those that do have no way to cook it. In some cases, such the aftermath of a tornado, volunteers also use chainsaws to cut trees for removal.

In Houston and the surrounding areas, the volunteers will cook and later provide what is called "mud out," Lovell said.

"This involves a lot of in-depth cleaning, taking up floors or wall board in order to spray to kill the mold and mildew," he said. "We start getting it ready for the insurance company to take over."

In addition to this work, the LBDR takes a chaplain along to the disaster area because there are psychological effects with any disaster.

"We want people to know we care and that there are people helping them," Lovell said.

Over the coming months, the volunteers from Limestone, Madison, Morgan and Cullman counties and all across the state will help the victims in Texas.

How you can help

In Limestone County, you can help by sending a donation the Limestone Baptist Association, no matter how large or small.

To donate call 256-232-0017 or send check with "disaster relief" in the memo to:

Limestone Baptist Association

14477 Baptist Camp Rd.

Harvest, AL 35749

Donations will be used to send disaster-relief teams for mass feeding, mud out of flooded homes, clearing debris with chainsaws, mobile laundry/shower units, along with assisting victims with repairs in case they don't have insurance.

For more information, go online to www.namb.net/dr or view SBC Disaster Relief on Facebook.

___

(c)2017 The News Courier (Athens, Ala.)

Visit The News Courier (Athens, Ala.) at enewscourier.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.