As waters recede around the Edisto River in South Carolina, Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are working hard to assist area residents whose homes were flooded by Hurricane Debby on August 3.
David Hendon, ABDR’s white hat leader on the ground in Walterboro, South Carolina, said teams from the Baldwin and Clarke Baptist associations conducted mud operations this weekend to clean up water-damaged homes.
“It’s a really good team of 11 people, and they’re doing it,” he said. “They’re tearing down a house for a disabled veteran and making a difference.”
They have about 10 requests for work so far, but Hendon said that in some areas the water levels are only just beginning to recede, so they don’t yet know the full scope of the work.
“I’m happy to be a part of it”
“We’re going back every day to see if we can go a little further down the roads,” he said. “It may be Monday or Tuesday before we get to some of these areas, and the end of the week before we get to others.”
Hendon said another team from the St. Clair Baptist Association will arrive on Tuesday (August 20).
The headquarters of the ABDR volunteers is the Bedon Baptist Church, which has been a “wonderful” host, helping to collect 20-litre buckets of cleaning supplies from nearby churches to distribute to residents in the area, he said.
Bedon Baptist is “actually very keen to continue to maintain all the contacts we make,” Hendon said, noting that ABDR volunteers have also set up a pastoral care station.
“We’re just happy to be a part of it,” he said.
