This post comes from Reid Doster, coordinator of CBF Louisiana and leader in CBF’s domestic disaster response.

After last Fall’s flash floods devastated communities west of Atlanta, CBF Georgia, under the leadership of Frank Broome, resolved to intervene, trusting the Lord to provide the manpower and materials.

CBF Coordinator Frank Broome, center, with Austell, Ga., homeowners, from left, Beverly Stewart and Lana Lorde.

Frank invited Charles Ray, CBF National Disaster Response Coordinator, and Reid Doster, CBF Louisiana Coordinator, into the disaster area to help identify needs and formulate a response-plan.

Charles and Reid made their way to Austell, GA, a relatively new subdivision with homes in the $150,000 range, where sewerage-contaminated flood waters had risen above the eaves and wrecked the bottom floors of many structures.

To their credit, FEMA had already issued emergency checks, which did offer some immediate, temporary relief. However, in no event could the amount of those checks exceed $28,000, while actual repair costs could involve tens of thousands more. To compound the misery, residents had never been able to obtain Federal flood insurance, because this particular Austell neighborhood had not been officially designated as a “flood plain.”  Complicating  things even more, many residents were automatically disqualified from low-interest SBA loans, due to having been recently laid off by a depressed economy.

Bottom line, many residents were between a rock and hard place – unable to repair their homes or sell them.  

Charles and Reid were first greeted in Austell by Randy Shepley, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Tucker, GA, and his team of volunteers already on the ground mudding out a home. Randy had gone there to check on another homeowner, LeAnna Anantaran, whose brother is involved in a CBF church. LeAnna’s restoration work was already well underway, and she unselfishly introduced Randy to a neighbor with more urgent concerns.

The most immediate need was for manpower to remove soaked carpet, sheetrock and furniture, and to help homeowners salvage and clean what they could. Dumpsters were at a premium, with soaked carpets and sheetrock piled high to the curb. City officials were overwhelmed and could not keep up, which created even more anxiety for the traumatized residents who possessed a growing concern about contamination from a nearby sewerage treatment pond.

Charles and Reid selected two homes, owned by Lana Lorde and Beverly Stewart, for a focused CBF restoration effort. Both two-story dwellings needed “mudding out” on the first floor, followed by electrical and plumbing work, insulation, sheetrock, paint, doors, cabinets and so forth.

The following churches and partnering organizations sent volunteers to assist Lana and Beverly:

• First Baptist Church, Tucker, GA, with Randy Shepley as Team Leader
• First Baptist Church, Fort Oglethorpe, GA, with John Wyatt as Team Leader
• First Baptist Church, Pendleton, SC, with Wayne Patterson as Team Leader
• Johns Creek Baptist Church, with Rickey Letson as Team Leader
• Volunteers of America, with Paul McLendon as Team Leader
• Hub1 Logistics, with Marvin Walton as Team Leader

Funding for the project came from:

• CBF National Disaster Response
• CBF Georgia
• CBF Florida
• Bridgewater Church, Madisonville, LA
• Volunteers of America

Accommodations for the South Carolina team were graciously provided by Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church.

The beauty of this experience is in how so many caring people worked together seamlessly to make a real difference in the lives of two people who were profoundly discouraged.

It was a fleshing out of the CBF Disaster Response mission statement:

Reaching across racial, religious and cultural barriers,
extending the unconditional love of Jesus Christ,
to the most needy, neglected and forgotten,
without any expectation of return.

There is still work to do in Austell, Georgia. To volunteer, contact reid_doster@hotmail.com or call Reid at (985) 778-6049.  Donations for this ongoing project may be sent to The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 2930 Flowers Road South, Suite 133, Atlanta, GA 30341, and designated for “CBF Response Fund #17006.”