TBM provides disaster relief after floods in the West

Separated by more than 700 miles, Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers helped meet needs of flood victims in the El Paso area and in northern Colorado.

In Socorro, near El Paso, TBM volunteers clean the flood-damaged home of a Pentecostal minister and his wife. The couple held church services in their home, and they are standing in the former site of the baptistery. (TBM PHOTO)With shovels, high-pressure hoses and disinfectant, mud-out volunteers cleaned 87 homes in Socorro, an El Paso suburb that borders Ciudad Juarez, separated only by the Rio Grande.

In the process, volunteers noted, they also worked on a house of God. One of the homes cleaned and repaired by TBM volunteers belonged to a Pentecostal minister and his wife, and the couple held church services in the house.

Gene Shellhorse, a Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteer from Poetry Baptist Church, near Kaufman, cleans debris after floods hits Loveland, Colo. (TBM PHOTO)While one disaster relief team wrapped up its assignment in West Texas, another 28-member volunteer group began work in Loveland, Colo. Flooding in the state caused damage across 2,000 square miles and claimed at least eight lives.

In their first full day of work in Loveland, a TBM assessment team evaluated 26 homes, but they found their access to many areas limited due to road closures. Even so, a mud-out crew cleaned two homes that first day.

Team members are being housed at Orchard Baptist Church in Loveland. In addition to the assessment and mud-out teams, TBM also is operating a disaster relief command post, food service and a shower/laundry unit.

TBM disaster relief relies entirely on donations. To give, click here or send a check designated “disaster relief” to Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron, Dallas 75227.