Florida Baptists to deploy in ?second wave? response to Hurricane Isaac destruction

Florida Baptists to deploy in ?second wave? response to Hurricane Isaac destruction

FBDR leader says Issac just as heartbreaking as other major events if ?it floods your house & knocks

Aug 31, 2012
By JONI B. HANNIGAN
Managing Editor

?JACKSONVILLE (FBW)-While hordes of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers closest to Louisiana and Mississippi will work through Labor Day weekend to help those displaced by massive flooding caused by Hurricane Isaac, Florida Baptist Disaster Relief workers will be part of a ?second wave? of responders in the aftermath of the storm that surged ashore on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Isaac made landfall as a Category 1 Hurricane in southeast Louisiana Aug. 28 before crawling up the coast towards New Orleans, lashing out with high winds and torrential rain, much like Tropical Storm Debby, which hit Florida?s Gulf Coast in Steinhatchee June 26.

Debby caused significant flooding, especially in Central and North Florida along the I-10 corridor, and was responsible for nine deaths.

Fritz Wilson, team strategist for the Florida Baptist Convention?s Disaster Relief and Recovery Team, said Florida Baptists only recently wrapped up a month-long response to Debby, but are expected to respond to Isaac by Sept. 8.

Florida?s volunteers are set to arrive in Louisiana and Mississippi as the water from widespread flooding finally recedes.?

Storms like Isaac and Debby are not considered as devastating as Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm, Wilson told Florida Baptist Witness, but the potential for heartbreak is the same.

?My heart along with those of Florida Baptists? aches with those of the people in Mississippi and Louisiana as they suffer and deal with the long road of recovery,? Wilson said, ?because we have experienced it many times before ourselves.?

?It is their Katrina, it is their Andrew, or Haiti earthquake,? Wilson said, reflecting on closeness of the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Andrew. ?If it?s ?just? a Category 1 Isaac and it floods your house and it knocks your trees down, it?s just as devastating and you?re still a person in need.?

Wilson, who helped amass 6,500 currently active and trained volunteers?from a peak of nearly 9,000 post-Katrina ? in his 16 years in Florida, leaves for Alpharetta, Ga., next month where takes on role of new executive director of Disaster Relief for the Southern Baptist Convention?s North American Mission Board.

While many states watch their own shores, Florida Baptists also keep an eye out for how Haiti and Cuba might be affected as storms roll off the Coast of Africa. Florida Baptists have strong international ministry partnerships in both nations.

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