Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief Begins Flood Damage Clean-up

Record setting rain between April 29 and May 1 has opened the door for Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) to serve the needs of those impacted. Areas in Eastern and Southern Oklahoma were heavily impacted by the floods.

On May 5, all needed equipment and resources were moved from the DR team center and set up at Lawton, Cameron. These resources included a shower trailer, laundry trailer, pump trailer, Incident Command Center, logistics trailer, feeding trucks, a generator trailer and more. All were moved in preparation for teams arriving on May 6 and 7.

An Oklahoma Baptist DR team meets as they prepare to serve on May 7.

Recovery work is set to begin on May 7 in Lawton depending on how much rain falls in the next few days. Assessor and chaplain teams have already begun meeting with homeowners that have requested assistance, getting paperwork ready for the recovery teams to do the needed work.

“There will no doubt be other areas that will have needs,” said Jason Yarbrough, Oklahoma DR state director. “We will address those areas as requests come in and we have the means to do so. We want to share the love of Jesus with our neighbors in need while serving their physical needs.”

So far, 20 requests for assistance have been received out of the 150 homes impacted.

May 8 Update

Oklahoma DR teams have begun working on clean-up requests from homes impacted by flood damage. They are currently serving in Lawton according to a video Yarbrough shared on Facebook.

“We just wanted to say thank you for your prayers, for your support, for what we get to to do,” Yarbrough said. “We get to come and be the hands and feet of Jesus, sharing his love and advancing the gospel one house at a time, one disaster at a time.”

Oklahoma DR has requested prayers for workers and those impacted by the floods. Homeowners that have been impacted by flooding can fill out a request for assistance form located on the DR website, www.okdisasterhelp.org. Financial donations to DR to assist in flood and other natural disaster recovery efforts can also be made on the DR website.