DOMs, Team Leaders and Secretaries,
Let me bring you up to date on what is happening around the state. We are soggy and last month was the wettest February on record in the Nashville area and other parts of the state had more than we did. We have had and still have flooding going on throughout the state from North to South and East to West and we are only now beginning to get a picture of how devastating it has been. If you live anywhere near a body of water, you know this all too well. While some areas fared okay, considering many are still under water today, almost a week later.
TN Baptist DR is ramping up to serve our neighbors. Many local Team Leaders and DOMs have already been using their contacts and communicating with their Emergency Managers to discover needs around them. Some have already gone and done some assessing and others have already taken their units out and begun the Flood Recovery Process. I am thankful for all the work you have put in and we will be in it for the long haul.
Here is the initial plan going forward…
- Look for the hardest hit areas and begin to set up operations. Some of the possible locations are:
Knoxville – Over 1,000 homes have asked for assistance.
Savanah – Estimates are possibly 1,000 homes affected
Hamblen – At least 100 are affected
Tri-City Area – Waiting for numbers
Decatur – Waiting for numbers - Look for a church or associational office that will host teams and have an IC in each one of those areas where we are going to set up operations.
DOMs – This is an area where I can really use your help in. Would you be looking to see if you have a church that would consider having teams stay there to work out of. They would need a space large enough to sleep teams (male/female), with a kitchen facility that could be used for teams to cook for the volunteers, restroom facilities, showers or access to water where we could bring a shower unit in. - Because of the size and scope of those affected, I will probably be calling in teams from outside our state. Our units have been going and going and while I have great confidence they will continue to help our neighbors, bringing in our DR family from some different states to help run some of the operations and bring in units.
For now, please…
- Put all Flood Recovery units on ALERT.
- Shower and laundry units are on ALERT.
- As thing begin we have need for Assessors and Chaplains to get ahead of the teams.
- We will need small feeding teams that could cook out of a church kitchen or small feeding unit for the volunteers.
- If you would please let Elizabeth and I know of your availability by telling us…
Name of Church or Association, Type of unit, Earliest Possible Deployment Date
Remember, if you cannot gather a full team but have volunteers on your team who are available to respond, please let us know that and we will try join them with other teams. If you can take your team and go for a day or two that will be good also as we start to arrange scheduling and housing.
FormStack is now loaded with an event called 2019 TN Flood. Please use this to report your activity.
As many of you have already gone out and done some assessing and looking around, please send me a list of those who went, date and how many hours you were out. Thanks.
May God use this event to draw many people to Himself.
In Christ Serving Together,
Wes Jones