It’s been a month since Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc in northeast Tennessee but Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from the state are still on the job.
The TBDR incident command post that was previously at First Baptist Church in Dandridge transitioned last week to Grace Baptist Church, Elizabethton.
RELATED: For more stories on disaster relief efforts in the state, click here.
The command post, led by John and Kaye Thomas, takes over cleanup efforts previously coordinated by Texas Baptists in Johnson City. The Texas incident command team closed operations Oct. 21 though some Texas volunteers have remained to help.
Tennessee volunteers completed 32 of the 63 jobs that had been started by their Texas counterparts, Kay Thomas said. In addition they took on 43 more jobs last week, she said.
The team is covering Erwin, Roan Mountain, Hampton, Mountain City, Johnson City and Elizabethton, she continued. “We are getting a lot of calls daily.”
Stopping the mold
She noted that they are getting a lot of calls for mold remediation. In many cases, neighbors helped neighbors mud out homes. Spraying Chlorox is not enough to keep mold from returning, she stressed.
Thomas said Tennessee teams spray Shockwave. “Without it, the mold will continue to grow,” she said.
In addition, they continue to get calls for mud out and chainsaw teams. The chainsaw teams are needed farther north in places like Mountain City which received more wind than flooding, she added.
Pockets of need
“We are still finding pockets of areas that have not been worked at all,” Thomas continued.
Four of the job requests are in Poga, a small community in the northeast. Teams will need to get there with ATVs or otherwise it would take three hours to get there, she said.
One issue teams are dealing with is the distance to some of the locations, Thomas noted. “It takes 50 minutes to drive to Mountain City so that adds almost two hours to a job.”
Temporary housing also is a major need, she continued. People are still in hotels or staying with families She said teams are working with one man who has stayed in his home though it has been condemned. “We also have heard stories of 10 people living in a two-bedroom house.”
As a result, some people have considered donating campers. That will be needed to be coordinated through local associations, she said.
Thomas said there is still a need for Disaster Relief volunteers. Teams interested in serving can call the incident command post in Elizabethton at (615) 969-0410.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Lonnie Wilkey and originally published by Baptist and Reflector.
