SIESTA KEY, Fla. (BP) — With more than 3 million people without power following Hurricane Milton’s landfall and subsequent pounding of central Florida, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) is ready to deploy meals as early as Saturday through its partnerships with The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross.

“Ahead of every storm, Send Relief and SBDR stage resources and identify locations where we can establish response sites,” said Coy Webb, crisis response director for Send Relief. “Florida Baptists are still conducting initial assessments to determine locations of greatest need in the aftermath of the storm.”

A unique aspect of Milton has been the sheer number of tornadoes that spawned from the storm. While such tornadoes are not unusual, there are currently reports of approximately three dozen touchdowns with multiple reports of tornado-like damage throughout central Florida.

Early Thursday (Oct. 10), there were four confirmed fatalities, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a media interview that the state anticipates the outbreak of tornadoes will likely have claimed more lives as first responders continue their assessments of damage across the state.

Send Relief has staged a tractor-trailer with more than 20,000 meals, bottled water, rolled roofing, water and generators in Alpharetta, Ga., which is slated to deploy soon to the region in support of the response.

In the ongoing response to Hurricane Helene, SBDR and Send Relief continue ministering to survivors throughout the Southeast, providing hundreds of thousands of meals and assisting hundreds of homeowners with disaster recovery efforts on their properties.

To donate and learn more about the response to this 2024 hurricane season, visit SendRelief.org. To learn more about what each state convention’s SBDR team is doing and how to get involved, visit SendRelief.org/sbdr.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board.)