RMCNews – Denver, Colorado … What has been forecast and talked about for the last week materialized Thursday, August 27 around 1 a.m. in Louisiana as Hurricane Laura came ashore with 150 mph winds, the strongest to make landfall in the state since 1856.
With this as the backdrop, Adventist Community Services (ACS) for the Southwest Union Conference has been in preparation mode, beginning seven days ago to work with ACS conference directors in the areas that appeared to be within the path hurricane Laura.
Arkansas-Louisiana ACS director Lavida Whitson and Southwest Conference ACS director Durandale Ford started to mobilize their teams for operations.
Whitson began discussions with state officials about managing a warehouse for all the donations that were already starting to arrive. Similarly, Ford began communicating with local team members and currently have the Smyrna Seventh-day Adventist Church in partnership with the American Red Cross, ready to house evacuees for shelter.
Arvada Adventist Church, International Adventist Company, and Indonesian Adventist church are also preparing a hurricane response trip to Texas and Louisiana.
Arvada church has been preparing and storing disaster response items and has a team of volunteers help with the recovery efforts. They will offer medical help, food, water, toiletries, hygiene items etc.
Jasmina Adamovic, Arvada church food bank director, is coordinating with the “2Serve,” a disaster response ministry from the Southern Union, and with the local Adventist churches, and Kim Dallum, Arvada church medical ministry director will be joining to coordinate medical services.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a generous donor has arranged for twelve pallets of dry foods, to be delivered to any location in the affected area.
If you have questions, or want to help, contact pastor Gordon at 303-888-6207 or email him at [email protected]
–RMCNews with North American Division Communication Department; photo by iStock
