SUWANEE, Ga. — In the more than three weeks since Hurricane Helene tore through Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have been working hard to help those affected by the storm.

“It has been a very fast-paced situation since Hurricane Helene came through our state,” said Dwain Carter, director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief. “This is the largest storm that Georgia has ever experienced and the largest response GBDR has ever been involved with inside of Georgia.”

Carter said that an average of nearly 300 volunteers a day over the first 20 days of the response have assisted with feeding, storm cleanup and more. They include volunteers from Disaster Relief organizations from 18 other states that have sent teams to work in Georgia.

Close to 400,000 meals have been prepared thus far, and GBDR has received more than 3,700 requests for chainsaw help. Those numbers are sure to rise greatly as GBDR will double the number of response sites in the coming days.

Currently, disaster relief response sites are operating in Augusta, Alma/Douglas, Vidalia, Statesboro and Valdosta. The additional sites will be located in Sandersville, Swainsboro, McRae, Louisville and Wrens.

Carter said that he understands some may not be able to physically help meet needs, but there are other ways they can help. “Consider starting a GBDR prayer group,” he said. “Pray for volunteers, safety, health, donations/funds and spiritual encounters.”

Disaster Relief is also getting help from outside the organization to help support relief efforts and provide for the needs of storm victims. Bob Sprinkel, a GBDR volunteer who heads up the Family Care team and is working out of Vidalia, said non-certified volunteers have arrived from as far away as Oklahoma to help the relief efforts.

He said one man, who owns his own tree-cutting service, showed up with his crew and all the equipment necessary to begin removing trees. Sprinkel said the man told his employees that he was coming to Georgia to help, and every one of them volunteered to come with him.

Just last week, Sprinkel said, he got word that a group from north Georgia, including state Rep. Brent Cox of District 28, had brought a smoker and was preparing Boston butts. Sprinkel contacted them, and they offered 75 Boston butts to be distributed to impacted families.

“The butts were in Douglas, close to 60 miles away,” he said, “so I told them ‘I’ll be there!’” While Sprinkel drove to Douglas to pick up the pork, other volunteers began to make a list of families that had been helped that would be blessed by a meal. Sprinkel arrived in Douglas, picked up four aluminum cans filled with meat and headed back to Vidalia.

“When I got back,” he recalled, “our clean-up and recovery teams from Georgia and Oklahoma were waiting on me.” Volunteers repacked the pork butts, which Sprinkel said were still steaming hot, and prepared them for delivery. Other volunteers had already been assigned addresses and headed out as soon as the meals were packed. Within an hour and a half, all the meals had been delivered to families in need.

Sprinkel said for some families it was the first hot meal they had eaten in weeks. “The response was overwhelming,” he said. “And it encouraged all of us as well to be able to bring those families an extra measure of help. Tears were everywhere.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — This article originally appeared in the Christian Index.)