Texas Baptist Men roll into rain-soaked Houston
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___HOUSTON--Texas Baptist Men provided disaster relief in the wake of Tropical Storm Allison, cooking meals for Houston-area residents and for some hospital patients and staff at the city's massive Texas Medical Center.
___The killer storm dumped up to three feet of rain on parts of the region over five days. Allison created floods that claimed at least 21 lives, swamped 20,000 homes and caused an estimated $1 billion in property damage.
___Trained volunteers set up the Texas Baptist disaster relief mobile unit, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig equipped with a self-sustained field kitchen, in a parking lot behind the Edwin Hornberger Building at the Texas Medical Center.
___South Texas volunteers manned a small disaster relief regional unit, joining Dallas-area workers who staffed the large mobile unit and its field kitchen at the Medical Center.
___Texas Baptist Men is an agency affiliated with and significantly funded by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Working in 90-degree heat and sweltering humidity, Texas Baptist disaster relief workers prepared 7,000 meals from the Medical Center location Monday, June 11; 16,500 the next day; and 18,500 Wednesday.
___Gary Smith of Midway Road Baptist Church in Dallas, on-site coordinator for the disaster relief mobile unit, expected the number of meals to continue to rise for several days.
___As the temperature also continued to rise, some men tied bandannas around their foreheads beneath their familiar yellow disaster relief caps, trying to keep the sweat out of their eyes. Perspiration soaked their blue uniform shirts.
___Texas Baptist Men provided meals for some patients and virtually all of the staff at Methodist Hospital and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital.
___They also cooked meals for the staff at Memorial Hermann Hospital--which suspended operations and evacuated patients June 10--as well as for the security officers and administration at the Texas Medical Center and the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office.
___The Medical Center--a gigantic complex southwest of downtown Houston--sits in one of the worst-hit areas of the city. Four days after the heaviest rains ended, city workers continued operating sump pumps at an intersection a couple of blocks east of the mobile field kitchen. They pumped water from beneath an underpass in an effort to reclaim a submerged car.
___Initially, nine volunteers with the Tarrant Baptist Association regional unit worked at the medical center. They relocated to Deer Park First Baptist Church June 12.
___Mike Brittain of Morton Baptist Church in Diana directed the East Texas regional unit, which was at First Baptist Church in Humble. Longview-area volunteers cooked 1,800 meals June 12 that Red Cross workers in emergency response vehicles delivered to shelters and neighborhoods throughout northeast Houston. The crew prepared 4,000 meals June 13 and 10,000 the next day.
___Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Jim Furgerson, executive director-treasurer of Texas Baptist Men, toured the flood-damaged area June 13.
___Throughout the next few weeks, the BGCT will implement its long-range response to needs in the area, including assistance to families, facilities consultations for damaged churches and other services. Texas Baptist Men will mobilize teams for clean-up and reconstruction as needed.
___Milfred Minatrea, director of missional church strategies in the BGCT church missions and evangelism section, is coordinator for the overall disaster response.
___Anyone wishing to make a financial contribution to the effort should make checks payable either to "Baptist Executive Board" or "Texas Baptist Men," designate them for disaster relief and mail to 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798.
___Chuck Norman (left) and Michael Bulis serve Red Cross and hospital workers in Houston. Volunteers from the Dallas area and from South Texas prepared meals in a parking lot behind the Edwin Hornberger Building at the Texas Medical Center in south Houston. Norman is from of First Baptist Church in Refugio, and Bulis is from Calvary Baptist Church in Aransas Pass.
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