January 8, 2001
Texas Baptist Men dispatched to aid Texarkana
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___TEXARKANA--When an ice storm hit between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, knocking down power lines throughout Northeast Texas, the Texas Baptist Men missions organization dispatched four disaster relief mobile units to provide residents with water and hot meals.
___The American Red Cross classified the ice storm as a level four disaster on a scale of one to five, with five being the maximum. One week after the ice storm, an estimated 15,000 homes in the region still lacked utilities.
___The East Texas disaster relief mobile unit from Gregg Baptist Association was activated Dec. 28. Volunteers set up emergency food service at Wake Village First Baptist Church, on the outskirts of Texarkana.
___Soon afterward, the Tarrant Baptist Association mobile unit set up at Texarkana's Southwest Community Center. The Smith County Baptist Association mobile unit set up its field kitchen at the Community Center in nearby New Boston, and the Wichita-Archer-Clay Baptist Association mobile unit set up at First Baptist Church in Clarksville.
___In their first week, 28 Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers--joined by an equal number of local church volunteers--worked from the four regional disaster relief units to prepare 15,000 meals.
___"There are still a lot of roads that we haven't been able to get down yet, so I expect the numbers to go up," said Mel Goodwin of Kilgore, on-site coordinator for the multi-unit disaster relief response.
___The six-member disaster relief team from Wichita-Archer-Clay Area moved from the mobile unit into the kitchen at First Baptist Church of Clarksville Jan. 3 when the daily meal total jumped from 500 to 1,000, according to Gene Pepiton, director of missions.
___Each of the four Texas Baptist disaster relief units provided food from an on-site serving line for up to 300 people per meal. About two dozen teenagers from the youth group at Wake Village First Baptist Church worked 11 to 12 hours each day with the disaster relief team members.
___The volunteers at each of the four units also prepared meals delivered by 14 American Red Cross emergency response vehicles to residential neighborhoods, remote rural areas, shelters and "fixed feeding sites" such as the First Baptist churches of Redwater, De Kalb and Hooks, Goodwin said.
___At one time, 11 shelters operated in the Texarkana area, and the emergency response vehicles were providing from 50 to 150 meals at each location. A week after the ice storm hit, a half-dozen shelters remained open.
___When volunteers with the East Texas disaster relief unit went to Texarkana, it was their second mission in less than three weeks. Texas Baptist Men had activated the regional unit when an initial ice storm hit the Longview area in mid-December.
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