The Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief incident command post, currently set up at First Baptist Church Dandridge, relocated to Grace Baptist Church, Elizabethton on Oct. 20, said Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. But the work continues forward in the northeastern part of the state.
The Dandridge site has been open for three weeks and the jobs are coming to an end, Jones said.
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Texans on Mission have operated the incident command post in Johnson City to cover northeastern Tennessee, but they are returning to Texas on Monday (Oct. 21).
“Their teams did a great job and we appreciate all they did,” Jones said.
He noted the new site will be located in Elizabethton because more jobs are still to be done there and in Mountain City.
‘Until all the jobs are finished’
Jones did not have a timetable for how long volunteers will be needed for cleanup.
“We will remain in northeast Tennessee until all the jobs are finished,” said Jones.
Jones has said that the damage from Helene rivals — or perhaps even surpasses — Hurricane Katrina in terms of the range of impacted areas and the time it is going to take to complete the job orders.
John and Kay Thomas, who were in charge of the Dandridge site, also will lead the command post at Grace Baptist Church, Jones said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was originally published by the Baptist and Reflector, newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.
