Ash out crews working in Noble area
The fires have slowed down but the cleanup /recovery effort is A BLAZE!
- Thus far the “army” of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have completed approximately 98 home sites after the first full week of “Ash Out” Recovery.
- The fires burned 114,000 acres of Oklahoma land. 603 homes were destroyed. 82% of those were uninsured.
- The total Request to Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief for “ash out” help from the homeowners is at 292 jobs.
- That is a massive amount of work to be done but the Oklahoma and Texas Volunteers made a great effort last week.
- This week there are 8 states in Oklahoma to help. We are blessed to have Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and California join our incredible Oklahoma DR volunteers to “Get’er” done in assisting these homeowners who have lost so much.
- Also several individuals and churches have given to the Oklahoma Wildfire relief fund set up at the BGCO. Anyone may give by going to donation page web site.
I cannot say thanks enough to all of those who have made this overwhelming task manageable by sacrificing their time, skills, and themselves to assist others when their world has fallen apart.
We are still far from this effort being over but prayerfully within two weeks we may have it complete!!
We also have partnered with Samaritan’s Purse and the Mennonite Disaster Services in the Creek
County effort. Our Oklahoma Baptist incident command team is processing every ASH OUT request yet we have given the two mentioned organizations a section of Creek county to do ash out work.
Both of those organizations are of like faith and beliefs and we partner with them in other areas of the USA and world when large disasters strike. We worked with them to some extent in the 2010 Haiti Earthquake recovery. Also, most recently with Sam’s Purse in Japan after the Tsunami.
The OKC and Tulsa regional food banks have donated much of the food for the past week at the Mannford, Arcadia/Luther, and Noble sites where the volunteers gather and work out of.
It has been an incredible blessing for this partnership to provide a huge amount for this great effort.
Thank you for praying for these hundreds of volunteers who are working very hard and in adverse conditions to serve as the Lord’s hands and feet in serving others.
Your Brother,
Sam Porter
Disaster Director
Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief