Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) feeding team volunteers were called to serve in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area late September 10 in anticipation of Hurricane Francine’s expected landfall late in the day on September 11. Volunteers will serve in coordination with Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers to support a Salvation Army feeding mission.
Tom Clore, IBDR Feeding Coordinator and a member of First Baptist Church in Eldorado, is leading the team. He is already traveling to a staging area in preparation for ministry. “We’re on our way to Forest Hills, Louisiana, and Tall Timbers Baptist Camp,” he told the Illinois Baptist. Once there he will join members of the Missouri team who are bringing their “Spirit Kitchen” feeding unit where they will begin coordination while they wait to be called in to serve.
The storm is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 Hurricane with 90 mph winds causing life-threatening storm surges along the coastline with locally heavy rainfall and damaging winds inland. New Orleans and Baton Rouge are two of the cities threatened. According to the National Hurricane Center, flash flooding will be a serious threat in Louisiana and Mississippi over the next few days.
With such short notice for the callout, Clore said the Illinois team “consists of three right now.” The mission is expected to last a few weeks, but really “depends on how bad the storm is,” said Clore. Additional volunteers may be needed to serve a week at a time.
All other IBDR ministry teams have been placed on standby to respond to Hurricane Francine in the coming weeks. In an email sent to volunteers on the morning of September 11, IBDR State Director Arnold Ramage instructed Blue Hat Team Leaders “to begin assembling their teams and checking their equipment in preparation for deployment.”