The Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts are exhausted after back-to-back hurricanes wreaked havoc in the same area, just weeks apart.
A Dallas-based nonprofit has also been staying busy to keep up with it all as families continue the cleanup.
Volunteers with Texas Baptist Men have been stationed there for the last six weeks. More crews headed out over the weekend.
After Hurricane Laura made landfall at the end of August, TBM sent chainsaw units, shower and laundry units, and feeding units to Orange, Texas, and Southwest Louisiana.
Crews were still there when Hurricane Delta hit a few days ago.
But this just highlights what has been a particularly tough year for the group.
“We’ve basically been on deployment for the past 12 months,” said Rand Jenkins, the Ministry Advancement team director for TBM.
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It started with the Dallas tornado last October, then the economic struggles brought about by the pandemic struck a few months later.
“We fed 100,000 meals just through TBM feeding Texas. What we found was that churches and food pantries were feeding 100, 200 and 300 percent more families than they used to,” Jenkins explained. “They didn’t have the money or the resources to do that all the time so we were able to help come in and provide some manpower and also some funds.”
When it comes to disaster response, the coronavirus has also made their missions a little more difficult.
“Deployment over COVID-19 times has been a little more expensive. We can’t put as many people in one vehicle, we need more space to sleep,” Jenkins said. “We need more space to do the same amount of work, which makes things a little more expensive for us but our volunteers and our donors have been great help during this time.”
Currently, TBM is asking for donations to continue helping families through their national network – as they don’t know what else is around the corner this year.
