Church of God Responds to Hurricane Ike
In the early morning hours of Saturday, September 13th the eye of Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast. The iconic hurricane that started as a tropical depression two weeks ago in the mid Atlantic Ocean became a monster leaving death and destruction in its wake. By the time Ike came ashore it grew to become one of the largest storms in U.S. history. With an eye stretching more than fifty miles wide, the foot print was more than five hundred miles wide, nearly as large as the Gulf of Mexico.
With thousands evacuated north, there were still thousands that stayed behind to weather the storm. Galveston, Houston and every little city, town and community in between, felt the fury of 110 mph sustained winds with some gusts reported in excess of 130 mph. Storm surge came ashore as high as twenty-five feet with some waves as high as thirty feet, all coming at high tide.
By Saturday afternoon, almost 4.5 million people were without power, three people were dead in Louisiana and many were unaccounted for in Texas. It was not until the early morning light of Sunday morning that the full extent of damage from Ike could be seen or understood.
In the midst of this destruction, Operation Compassion was prepared to respond. A 30,000 square foot warehouse in Baton Rouge became a supply depot for disaster relief in Texas. Two semis left from Baton Rouge for La Porte, TX late Saturday evening with food, water and Bibles. When they arrived, our disaster volunteers went to City Hall and found people lined up waiting for relief supplies to arrive. The Mayor, Chief of Police, Fire Chief and EOC were waiting on help to arrive. They had no resources for the city.
The mayor asked Operation Compassion to help. By 2:00 a.m. Sunday, our volunteers had supplied 1,500 families. By 2:45 a.m., we had permission to house up to 400 people. Also, the Mayor had supplied us meat from the school system and FEMA delivered five semis of MRE’s, water, ice and a freezer trailer. By 10:00 a.m. Monday, there was a line three miles long with people looking for help.
When Operation Compassion’s disaster network heard of the destruction and our commitment to help the survivors, they pulled out all the stops as well. Feed the Children has offered 500 pallets of water from the California warehouse, 3 semis of fruit cups, 2 semis of frozen chicken and multiple semis from New Jersey, Houston and Oklahoma City.
God’s Pit Crew is in transit from Virginia to La Porte with equipment and volunteers. New Life Foundation in La Porte is helping with warehousing and volunteers.
Operation Compassion plans to establish five satellite disaster sites in the Houston area as there is need. Also, Operation Compassion is working with church leadership to establish on the ground assessment of needs. Most of us never thought we would live to see another storm like Katrina in 2005. Responding to Katrina cost Operation Compassion almost $750,000 received through donor support. While Ike officially was not as strong as Katrina, Ike was as large as and will prove to be as costly.
Operation Compassion needs your help! Responding to Ike will be expensive. It could cost as much as $250,000. This would include Operation Compassion’s response to the Caribbean and Houston. However, through your donations of support, Operation Compassion will be able to fully respond and assist the survivors of this horrific storm. There are three convenient ways you can donate: mail, phone and online.
Please send your donations to or contact us today:
Operation Compassion
Donnie W. Smith, D.Min., Executive Director of Care Division
David Lorency, President
Tim Burdashaw, Int’l. Operations Coordinator
Lisa Boen, Int’l. Logistics Coordinator
114 Stuart Road, NE Suite 370
Cleveland, TN 37312
423.728.3932 Office
423.728.3958 Fax
www.operationcompassion.org
