fbpx
×

Log into your account

We have changed software providers for our subscription database. Old login credentials will no longer work. Please click the "Register" link below to create a new account. If you do not know your new account number you can contact [email protected]
Dorian relief: Baptists serving Bahamas & N.C.
Brandon Elrod, NAMB
September 12, 2019
5 MIN READ TIME

Dorian relief: Baptists serving Bahamas & N.C.

Dorian relief: Baptists serving Bahamas & N.C.
Brandon Elrod, NAMB
September 12, 2019

As Hurricane Dorian moved along the East Coast, North Carolina officials hoped they had dodged a direct hit. Then, the storm made landfall in the Outer Banks at 8:35 Sept. 6.

Photo by Sam Porter, NAMB

Tom Hale of Apex, N.C., left, and James Davis of Chapel Hill, N.C., right, assess Hurricane Dorian damage to Randall Styron’s house on Cedar Island. North Carolina Baptists on Mission are at work in Cedar Island and the town of Atlantic, N.C., after the storm.

The Outer Banks – a string of islands off the state’s main coast – experienced significant damage to homes and businesses days after Dorian struck the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm.

North Carolina Baptists on Mission (NCBM) has begun feeding and setting up recovery sites in the Carolinas while Baptist Global Response (BGR) is working with Bahamian Baptists to distribute supplies such as food, water, blankets and hygiene kits as their leaders plan for a long-term recovery effort.

Ronnie Floyd, president of the SBC Executive Committee, noted that “Southern Baptists have a long history of helping those in time of need. The quick response by Baptist Global Response, Send Relief [of the North American Mission Board] and our state Baptist disaster relief organizations as well as local churches to the devastation left by Hurricane Dorian is to be commended. We must continue to work together to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of those affected by Hurricane Dorian.”

BGR reported stories from survivors that underscored the ongoing severity in the Bahamas. The confirmed death toll stands at 50 and tens of thousands of residents have been displaced.

One man, BGR said in a statement, went out to help rescue others only to return and find that his wife had been killed as a result of the storm. Another woman rode out the hurricane by clinging to a rock, going days without food before making it to safety.

The search and recovery process has been ongoing in the Bahamas, even a week after the storm made landfall, and the death toll is expected to rise sharply. Volunteer relief teams will only be able to initiate their efforts when first responders declare towns and regions safe.

Some areas, such as Marsh Harbor on Abaco Island, were “completely destroyed,” BGR CEO Jeff Palmer said. “The city and area were so devastated that people have evacuated because there is nothing there for them.”

BGR’s primary focus so far has been working with their ministry partners to meet the needs of evacuees, many of whom fled to Freeport and Nassau. Eventually, volunteers will be able to serve in the recovery effort in the Bahamas, but the main need now, Palmer said, is prayer and financial support to provide food and other items locally sourced in the Bahamas so that churches there will be able to continue ministering to their communities.

Photo by Sam Porter, NAMB

North Carolina Baptists on Mission are preparing to serve hot meals to survivors of Hurricane Dorian on Ocracoke Island. Meals will be prepared at the mass feeding kitchen set up on the parking lot at the ferry landing in Cape Hatteras.

NCBM set up a feeding unit over the weekend at the Hatteras Ferry Terminal and prepared 1,980 meals that the American Red Cross then delivered to storm survivors on Hatteras Island and ferried to Ocracoke Island, which is only accessible by boat or ferry. Since then, a kitchen has been established on Ocracoke Island.

Jack Frazier, NCBM disaster relief coordinator, praised volunteers who have been flexible and servant-minded throughout the response. When the government’s emergency management agency called asking for a team to distribute items donated to help storm survivors, volunteers stepped forward to meet the need.

“They are spending their vacation and/or free time to do this at the drop of a hat,” Frazier said, calling North Carolina’s volunteers some of the best. “We can’t thank them enough for stepping up to be a servant and hands and feet of Christ.”

Recovery sites have been set up at Atlantic Missionary Baptist Church in Atlantic, N.C., at Cape Hatteras Baptist Church on the island in Frisco, N.C., and on Ocracoke Island at an Assembly of God church. From these sites, NCBM teams will go into neighborhoods to begin the cleanup and restoration process for homes damaged during the hurricane.

Visit baptistsonmission.org/Hurricane-Dorian to learn about local relief, to donate or to volunteer. Visit gobgr.org to donate and learn more about BGR’s efforts in the Bahamas.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board. Dianna L. Cagle, Biblical Recorder assistant editor, updated this story Sept. 13. Check with BRnow.org for more updated stories.)