Above: Jody Herrington, OBI's director of U.S. disaster relief, monitors Hurricane Ike at the Emergency Operations Center in Texas.

DALLAS – Hurricane Ike roared ashore late Friday and Operation Blessing’s disaster relief teams were already poised and ready to help.

Jody Herrington, OBI’s director of U.S. disaster relief has already formed partnerships with the Texas State Emergency Operations Center to quickly provide relief to those affected by the storm.

Herrington’s team is in Beaumont, Texas, with a convoy of equipment, and set up a base of operations at Cathedral in the Pines Church to service evacuees and those without power.

"I have never seen the water come up my driveway 3 or 4 feet," said 30-year-resident, Robert Merchant. "It was so high, my car started to float."

OBI’s state of the art mobile command center is on-site as well as a crane, skid steer, shower and construction trailers in addition to the mobile kitchen that can feed up to 2,000 people each day.

Today, OBI's convoy including our mobile command center, crane, skid steer, shower trailer, and mobile kitchen headed for Beaumont, Texas to set up their base of operations.

Already disaster relief supplies are coming from St. Bernard Parish, La., where the team was helping victims of Hurricane Gustav prior to Hurricane Ike. That truck is filled with food to prepare, Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs), tarps and volunteer supplies.

In addition, a 1,000 AMP 3 Phase generator and skid-mounted shower will arrive on Monday. Other disaster relief supplies will also arrive today.

Two teams of 10 people are ready and poised to go out into the communities to aid the victims. Already, OBI is helping provide aid to 2,000 evacuees staying at a local Wal Mart by setting up shower facilities and helping set up wall-to-wall cots.

"We didn't have the money to leave," said Trudi Pittman, who rode out the storm with her two children. "My sister didn't have enough room in her car to take us. We all crammed in the closet when the storm hit."

Before the storm, the team pre-staged more than 33,000 pounds of disaster relief supplies including nonperishable food and ready-to-eat meals for immediate response.

OBI arrived in Texas Thursday via New Orleans, where they spent the last week assisting residents of St. Bernard Parish following Hurricane Gustav. There, they provided 5,600 free hot meals for residents, managed distribution of 19 tons of ice, assisted with debris removal, and distributed 255,000 pounds of emergency relief supplies including food, water, hygiene kits and disposable diapers.

"We need cash donations to finance relief efforts," said OBI president, Bill Horan. "This will help us buy the supplies we need to aid the hurricane victims."

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help by making an online donation toward OBI's disaster relief efforts. With your support, we can continue to provide emergency relief and recovery. Please make an on-line donation today.

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