Early last Tuesday morning as Gustav was winding its way through Louisiana, the Church of God’s Operation Compassion had a team of volunteers with semi trucks loaded with disaster relief supplies setting up a disaster site in Baton Rouge. What no one had predicted was that Gustav only skirted New Orleans but cut a swath of destruction from Grand Isle to Baton Rouge before turning more northwesterly toward Texas.
Since then, OC’s team of volunteers which includes a team of chaplains from Alabama has given away more than 240,000 pounds or six semis of water, food, hygiene, cleaning supplies and wheel barrels. This disaster site has averaged 1,000 families some days. Also, OC has been serving hot meals to each family as they pick up their supplies.
On Thursday, the volunteers began taking supplies to the elderly that are unable to come to the disaster site. Volunteers have been going door to door checking for these unable to get out of their homes. On Sunday, volunteers located a Vietnamese/Hispanic community flooded by daily rains following Gustav and delivered food, water and other supplies.
Today, a group from the American Bible Society is visiting the site helping to deliver Bibles along with the food, hygiene and other supplies. ABS is one of OC’s disaster partners that have responded to the urgency of the need in Baton Rouge and the surrounding area.
Operation Compassion has been blessed to have disaster partners that have shared the responsibility of recovery. More than twenty-five partners have participated with OC since Gustav made landfall. In all, more than thirteen semis have been delivered throughout the Gulf Coast in response to Gustav’s devastation of which God’s Pit Crew has delivered four semis.
Troy Duggan of Operation Outreach has been managing the disaster site in Baton Rouge. He has done exceptional work coordinating deliveries and distribution not only in Baton Rouge but throughout the region. Many smaller trucks have been loaded for remote or outer areas devastating by the storm. Duggan led a service from the back of his truck while delivering food and supplies to the Vietnamese/Hispanic neighborhood.
Please send your donations to or contact:
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 [1]