With most boil water notices being lifted for the Jackson municipal water system, Mississippi Baptist Disaster Relief and local church partners have wrapped up efforts to deliver more than 5,800 cases of bottled water to affected residents. Now as Florida braces for Hurricane Ian this week, Mississippi Baptists and other states are preparing to respond to the storm.
Hubert Yates, Disaster Relief director for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, thanked Baptists who contributed a total of 204 volunteer workdays to deliver nearly 140,000 bottles of fresh water to Jackson residents during the city’s water crisis.
Mississippi Baptists reached out to individual residents in need of water who were disabled, had no transportation or otherwise could not pick up bottled water at the multiple distribution sites set up around the Jackson area, Yates said.
Bulk quantities of bottled water at the ministry’s temporary warehouse at the Farmer’s Market in Jackson were also distributed to partnering organizations, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and City of Jackson for requests received through emergency help lines.
A total of 492 ministry engagements — witnessing, praying and sharing in personal ways — were recorded, Yates said.
Hurricane Ian
Meanwhile, Mississippi Baptist DR volunteers — along with volunteers in neighboring states — have been placed on standby status in case a request for assistance comes from the Florida Baptist Convention as the state anticipates the arrival of Hurricane Ian, which forecasters predict could be a Category 4 storm by landfall.
“Anticipated needs are for mass feeding, volunteer teams feeding, chainsaw, flood recovery, shower facilities and incident management/administration,” Yates said.
“Depending on landfall area, MBDR will likely be given a geographic area to provide services in association with other deploying Florida Baptist Disaster Relief and Southern Baptist Convention disaster relief teams.
“With the current large area of potential involvement with this storm, it is not possible to be more specific at this time,” he noted. “Much will be determined by the strength of the storm and the impact area as it makes landfall later this week.”
Ways to respond, give
Check with your church, association or state Baptist convention to find out how they are responding and contributing to these types of Disaster Relief efforts. To contact your state convention for more information, click here. Or, for more information about Send Relief, click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by William Perkins and originally published by the Baptist Record.
