SBC mobilizes in Laura's wake

Southern Baptists are joining other disaster relief groups in responding to damage from Hurricane Laura.

Today disaster organizations are assessing the damage along the Texas and Louisiana coastal areas and inland and are providing services where most needed.

Scottie Stice, head of Southern Baptists of Texas Convention's Disaster Relief, tells OneNewsNow feeding facilities have been moved into East Texas.

"They will be working with Salvation Army there in Beaumont, and they will have a capacity of about 12,000 meals a day there," Stice reports. "If it works out that the need is not that large in Beaumont, then this partnership, this ministry, those units will move across the state line into Louisiana to assist Louisiana's disaster relief and Salvation Army over there."

Southern Baptists also have smaller food trucks that will be driven into damaged areas to provide meals for 300-400 people at a time. Meanwhile, cleanup recovery units are moving in to mud out homes after flooding and to clear any trees blocking traffic or damaging homes.

Stice says they will also minister to spiritual needs.

"Our chaplains go out and encourage not only our volunteers [and] first responders; they'll reach out towards residents, towards churches -- anywhere they find someone in need of a listening ear or quick prayer and encouragement from the Word," he details.

Additionally, trucks with capability to do laundry and provide showers to residents are ready to roll.

Aid to medical facilities

While disaster relief organizations are moving in to assist hurricane victims, another is looking after needs of medical facilities. Direct Relief has been in contact with medical operations in the storm's path and will continue to assess needs.

OneNewsNow spoke with Tony Morain, a spokesman for Direct Relief.

"Right now, it sounds like a lot of health facilities are closed [and] waiting to reopen," he shared. "We've heard from a few that are on generator power because power's out – and that means, for now at least, they're able to maintain the refrigeration needed for their medicines and make sure their medical records are running."

Direct Relief is a medical disaster response organization which provides medicines and medical resources to community health care providers that turn no one away.

"[Those providers] are expressing their needs to us, [and] we're going to dispatch the supplies that they need as soon as they let us know what's needed," Morain added. "Additionally, Direct Relief – at the start of every hurricane season – stages caches of medicine with these facilities in areas that are prone to hurricanes."

More than a dozen caches have already been placed. Morain said medical facilities in the path of Hurricane Laura have two already in use.