Operation Compassion Responds to Hurricane Gustav on Multiple Fronts
Early last week when Hurricane Gustav came to life in the Caribbean few people paid any attention to what would quickly develop into a killer storm. Even as a tropical Storm, Gustav packed a horrible punch that devastated life and property in the Caribbean. As Gustav made landfall on the island of Hispaniola, it was evident that Haiti was going to have to deal with the ferocity of another sizeable storm.
Death and destruction was left in Gustav’s wake as the storm left Haiti and made a sharp turn southward toward Jamaica. Jamaica was no match for Gustav as homes were destroyed and lives were lost across the island nation. As Gustav continued to move toward the Gulf of Mexico it became evident that the Gulf Coast was going to feel the brunt of a major hurricane leaving nothing but catastrophic destruction and seventy-one dead across the Caribbean.
Even as Gustav was moving into the Gulf of Mexico, Operation Compassion was busy responding to the call from survivors for help and assistance. Operation Compassion began to ship containers of relief goods. Semis of blankets, tents, food and bottled water have been sent to Jamaica and Haiti and will continue to be sent.
In the United States, Operation Compassion established disaster response warehouses from Miami to Houston. The first warehouse to open is in Baton Rouge, LA. This warehouse was pivotal to our response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago. While Baton Rouge took a direct hit from the eye wall of Gustav our warehouse response team is activated today.
The Baton Rouge warehouse is a 30,000 square feet building including a walk-in freezer, refrigerator and showers. Several semis were sent to Baton Rouge with more disaster relief supplies to arrive as needed. Our assessment teams are also in the field today surveying the damage and measuring where Operation Compassion can respond impacting the greatest needs, moving outward from Baton Rouge.
A response of this magnitude will take everyone working together making a difference. Your financial assistance to Operation Compassion will help with the cost of our response to Haiti, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and the Gulf Coast of the United States.
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
