Far Rockaways Desperately Need Your Help

Disaster Assistance Mission-Hoboker NJ/Far Rockaway NY

Today was another big one. Handed out many lunches and the rest of the supplies from Northport CoC. When we finished here I decided to drive over to Rockaway and see how things look before I take the Mobile Headquarters there. Wish I had not had that idea. It is about 20 miles from here and it took me 2 hours to get there. By that time it was almost dark so no photos yet. The area looked just like I remember things looked after Hurricane Katrina, boats in the middle of the road and cars stranded everwhere. I looked at the location where Far Rckaway and Long Island CoC have been handing out supplies during the day and deciced I didn't think it was safe enouth for me to stay there at night with the Mobile Headquarters. So the plan now is the police department is going to set us in a secure location and will take the meals out to the areas in need much like we do most of the time anyhow. Tomorrow I am going to Sams and Walmart to purchase as much as I can get in the headquarters than on Monday members from Mid-Hudson CoC are coming here to help move everything to Far Rockaway NY.

Disaster Assistance Mission-Hoboken NJ

We made it thru another day. Photo below is the 2 large generators that stopped working yesterday. Local fire Chief came by today and helped us load the into our truck than he took them out for repairs. Don't know how long that will take. Volunteers form Mid-Hudson came today, they stopped and picked up a new generator for us. Also today truck of supplies arrived from Northport CoC Tuscaloosa AL. We did 375 meals today one box full went to Brooklyn. We gave out many blankets, toothbrushes, toothpast, soap, cleaning supplies and many other items. Many thanks to all of you for all of your prayers it helps get thru the day. Other photos are the supplies from Northport CoC, Tuscaloosa AL.

Disaster Assistance Mission-Hurricane Sandy-Hoboken NJ

508 Meals today. Total was down because no meals were delivered they were all picked up here at the mobile headquarters. Total for 4.5 days 4,411. Dennis Rosenbaum from Mid-Hudson CoC came and helped today, he also brought us several cases of water. Some other good news I have found a place if you have RV and want to come and help. You would need to run off generator. I still have the mobile headquarters running off generator also.

Disaster Assistance Mission-Hoboken NJ

Disaster Assistance Mission-Hurricane Sandy-Hoboken NJ-Today we handed out 888 meals and other food items. Thankfully we have been blessed with local volunteers. In a town that is only 1 sq mile and has 50,000 people it is hard to find any space to house our volunteers form out of town. Photo below is view from the street of our location.

Disaster Assistance Mission-Hurricane Sandy-Hoboken NJ

Today we served 1158 meals and handed out other misc food items. Photo below is volunteers form Collingswood Church of Christ that came today to help and bring us supplies.

Hurricane Sandy-Hoboken NJ

Hurricane Sandy-Hoboken NJ- Things are still crazy here. We served 1388 meals. It is a days work just trying to go out and get the supplies to cook. Photo below is gas station we passed today on the way to Sams. One line about a mile long for cars and another for people walking with 5 gal cans. Thank goodness the Office of Emergency Management is bring us gas each day for the generators. Tonight I am trying to get all my calls returned. Most of the day I can't here the phone because of the generators running. Many Churches have called wanting to help. The challenge now is to find a place for volunteers to stay. Tomorrow Collingswood CoC is driving about 1 hr 45 min each way just to help for one day and bring us some supplies.

Disaster Assistance-Hoboken NJ

Police escort got me here at noon. When we arrived the National Guard had taken over all the space at City Hall so they took us 2 blocks to the Capitol One Bank parking lot. The bank is closed(no power). We got parked unhooked and unloaded, generator filled with gas and we started cooking and fixing lunch bags. By 3 o'clock we had cooked and handed out 469 lunches plus many bags of fresh bakery bread that was donated to us by local bakery. Photo below shows the long line at the Mobile Headquarters waiting for us to start handing out. I need more time to find out where our out of town volunteers can stay. City Hall sent us local volunteers to help today. Right now I am in the Mobile Headquarters locked in the fenced bank parking lot.

Disaster Assistance - Hoboken, NJ

Vihaan Gadodia, 2, is handed from a National Guard truck after he and his family left a flooded building in Hoboken, N.J., Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, in the wake of superstorm Sandy. / AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

Extraordinary storm, extremely serious threat

Stu Ostro, Senior Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Oct 28, 2012 12:46 pm ET Graphical tropical update:Tropics Watch SANDY - History is being written as an extreme weather event continues to unfold, one which will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States. - REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE OFFICIAL DESIGNATION IS NOW OR AT/AFTER LANDFALL -- HURRICANE (INCLUDING IF "ONLY" A CATEGORY ONE), TROPICAL STORM, POST-TROPICAL, EXTRATROPICAL, WHATEVER -- OR WHAT TYPE OF WARNINGS ARE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AND NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER -- PEOPLE IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM NEED TO HEED THE THREAT IT POSES WITH UTMOST URGENCY.

Disaster Assistance Hurricane Sandy

Looks like most of the track models are in agreement on where landfall will be. Sandy continues to be a large and dangerous system and poses a major threat to portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Residents from New England to New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia should begin to prepare for Sandy. We have been in contact with churches in 7 of the states that are in the path for damage. Now we must wait and see what the needs will be.

Hurricane Sandy: Monster Threat to East Coast

The Disaster Assistance Mission is doing as much preparing as we can to be ready incase we are needed. The ingredients awaiting Hurricane Sandy appear to be coming together to create what forecasters are calling a monster combination of high wind, heavy rain, extreme tides and maybe snow that could cause havoc along the East Coast just before Halloween next week. "We looking at one of the worst storms on record that we've seen in this region," said Carl Parker, hurricane specialist for The Weather Channel.

Disaster Assistance - Hurricane Isaac - LaPlace, LA

Volunteers from Faith Village Church of Christ,Wichita Falls TX have been here helping all week.

Today we delivered another 288 care kits and 180 cleaning kits out into the flooded areas.

Today we delivered 264 personal care kits and 184 cleaning bucket kits out into the flooded areas.

Disaster Assistance a mission of the Church of Christ has the Mobile Headquarters setup at Laplace Church of Christ in Laplace, LA. This location is our central distribution site for meals, other food and supplies, volunteer coordination, cleanup and repair. We are also working with several congregations in the surrounding areas. As of 10/02 we had served 15,060 meals, completed 31 work orders. There are many more families that still need help. Over 7000 houses were flooded here in St John’s Parish alone. The Disaster Assistance Mission is also working with the St John’s Long Term Recovery Program, as of right now we have over 400 workorder request and many more coming in each day. These requests are for many different things (gutting out, replacing insulation, installing sheetrock and flooring, appliances and furniture, etc. We need skilled and un skilled labors and FUNDS to help them with this. Right now we have three locations where volunteers are being housed with meals and showers provided. As you know this has been a very busy year for us. This is the third disaster we have assisted with. We can continue to do this work of helping people whose lives have been devastated by disasters only with the financial support of our brothers and sisters across the U.S.

Today we received 800 buckets filled with cleaning supplies and 300 personal care kits. This will really help families have been asking for cleaning supplies everyday.

Below photos are of the 1st house we have volunteers putting sheetrock back in. The group that is here from Texas is doing this today.

Photo below is one of the church leaders house here at LaPlace Church of Christ. It is almost ready to have insultation and sheetrock re-installed.

Photo is Worship service today at LaPlace CoC. We had groups here from Harding and LSU at Worship than out to work. Two groups from Texas coming this week one tonight and one tomorrow. They will be installing insulation and sheetrock in houses that are ready.

Funds Needed - Hurricane Isaac - LaPlace, LA

By the first part of next week we will have several houses that will be ready to have insulation and sheetrock installed. We have two groups coming from Texas, one arrives Sunday night and the other Monday afternoon. Both of these groups will be installing insulation and sheetrock. We need your help FUNDS have been very slow in coming in.

Students here from Harding to help with cleanup and repair

Tonight around 1:30AM the group from Harding will be arriving. They will work Friday, Saturday and 1/2 day Sunday after Church. They will be coming each weekend for the next 10 or 12 weeks. Thanks so much to these college kids and their leaders.

Disaster Assistance-LaPlace, LA

Staggering numbers, below is the number of families that needed help that dosn't normally receive help. Thousands Receive D-SNAP Assistance in St. John the Baptist Parish A total of 8,342 households in St. John the Baptist Parish received DSNAP food assistance from the DCFS. DSNAP is an income eligibility based program to assist eligible households who do not receive regular SNAP benefits and who need help buying groceries due to lost income or damages following a disaster. Eligibility was determined by federal guidelines based on an individual's known or expected income, resources (such as cash on hand, saving and checking account balances) and unreimbursed disaster expenses during the disaster period of August 26 and September 24.

Volunteers and Funds needed for Disaster Assistance in LaPlace, LA

Much going on here. 301 meals today, signed up more homes to be gutted. We have found an area where the houses haven't been touched yet so the mold is expanding quickly. Most of these families did not have flood insurance. We are now working in conjunction with the town, FEMA and AmericaCorps. The two main things needed right now are volunteers and FUNDS.

Lots going on here in LaPlace, LA. We have served over 12,000 meals and gutted 23 houses. Today I talked with officials from St. John The Baptist Parish(LaPlace), FEMA and met with AmeriCorps St. Louis group. We are all going to work together on the long term recovery efforts. The estimated number of homes affected is somewhere between 6,000 – 8,000. The building next door to the church here is where the old Walmart used to be. It is now going to be the main warehouse to store supplies that are donated to the town and then hauled out to the other distribution locations. If anything comes in that we can use or hand out they can bring us a pallet over with forklift. They also have cots to sleep 200+ volunteers. Needless to say there is lots of work to be done here and we are expecting to be here for a long time. We need volunteers of all types (helpers or skilled laborers). We need your help with FUNDS to be able to tackle this massive job ahead of us. Donation information to the right. "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, ..." Matt. 25:35 We can continue to do this work of feeding hungry people whose lives have been devastated by disasters only with the financial support of our brothers and sisters across the U.S. Please pray for the thousands of people whose lives have been forever changed and for us as we show the love of the Lord to them by just providing a simple meal and supplies or helping rebuild.

We served 551 meals today. That brings our total meals served to over 12,000 in just 16 days.

Good day today 991 meals served, unloaded several loads of water and had group from Harding out gutting house. To date we have served 11,735 meals and helped with 23 houses. We want to help families with getting sheetrock and carpet back in there houses but we need FUNDS to do this.

We Need Your Help

469 meals served today that included breakfast and dinner for volunteers. 21 homes have been worked on by our volunteers to date. Once the houses have been gutted and have dried out we want to help with installing the new sheetrock to do this we need your help with funds to purchase necessary supplies to do this.

Today we served 544 meals and have volunteers out gutting houses. Volunteers here today from Ks, Ky, TX, Smithville CoC, MS and South Side CoC in Baton Rouge.

Disaster Assistance Mission - LaPlace, LA

We have a good group of volunteers here today to help gutt one of the damaged houses.

Hurricane Isaac Donations and Volunteers Needed at LaPlace, LA

614 meals served today. Volunteers out working on houses. New work orders still coming in. Just let me know if you want to help.

LaPlace, LA - Hurricane Isaac Update

We served 473 meals today and surveyed some of the houses that we have work orders for to make sure we know what they need. Tomorrow we have 15-20 volunteers that will be here to help. We need many more.

Please check out our facebook page for many more photos and updates it is listed under disasterassistance@gmail.com

Great day today

Haven't finished totaling the meal count for today but it is around 1400. We also worked on 4 families homes. There were between 40 & 50 volunteers here working today. I also received a phone call from Pearlington Church of Christ in MS. They asked if we could help them they can't get any help. If anyone would like to go there please let me know. We signed up another 25 families that need help with cleanup up their homes today. Please pass this along to your friends we need volunteers and funds to keep this mission work going. The photo below was taken by Trae Durden, while he was working with his college group from Tuscaloosa, AL here today.

Disaster Assistance LaPlace, LA

883 meals today, homes cleaned, met with church from FL that wants to help, met with another group from AR that wants to help and group from AL will arrive between 10 and midnight tonight. Tomorrow looks to be a very busy day hopefully we will have a large amount of volunteers.

Transformed by the Word By Brian Kirby

Disaster Assistance Work in LaPlace… As you know, the relief group Disaster Assistance CoC from Lake Jackson, TX has been in LaPlace, LA for several days now conducting relief efforts after the flooding that took place in that community due to Hurricane Isaac. This organization, supported by the churches of Christ and overseen by the church in Lake Jackson, TX, has been across the United States helping communities recover from various disasters over the years – including here at Goodwood during Hurricane Gustav. Mike Baumgartner with Disaster Assistance has informed me that they will likely be in LaPlace for several months as they continue to assist with the relief and recover efforts there. As of the writing of this article, Disaster Assistance has served 3904 meals, distributed a semi-trailer load of supplies from Disaster Relief (Nashville, TN), helped several families clear out their flooded homes. They have also set up 25 air mattresses and obtained a mobile shower facility for any volunteers who wish to come and help. There are also several coordinated efforts in the works at this point to have volunteers from all over the southeast United States to come and help out with the relief efforts. Mike has also let me know that there is still a great need for volunteers in the effort. If you, or a group of you all, are interested in helping out with the relief effort, visit the Disaster Assistance web site at http://www.disasterassistancecoc.com/ for information on volunteering OR you can contact me (Bryan) at the church office. If you want to know what kind of supplies they need, visit the “Items Needed” page on their website OR you can donate cash (which is always useful) through the church or on their website. As we look at the efforts that are going on all over south Louisiana, let’s keep a few passages from the New Testament in mind. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8 ESV) “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17 ESV) And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10 ESV)

GREAT NEWS

Photo below is a shower trailer just delivered tonight here at the church. We now have 4 showers for ladys and 3 for men. Now there is no excuse for anyone not to come and help. You can sleep in the church and have a nice hot shower.

Busy-Busy Day Today

We served 958 meals and handed out almost all of the semi load of supplies from Disaster Relief, Photo below shows people in line for Disaster Assistance meals and Disaster Relief supplies.

Hurricane Isaac-Laplace, LA

The days just keep getting bigger. Today we did 1132 meals and helped two families clean out there flooded houses

Hurricane Isaac-Laplace, LA

Lots going on today. We did 649 meals. Filled out many more work orders. We had volunteers here today from Hickory Knoll CoC. Tomorrow volunteers that I know of will be from Goodwood CoC, Zachary CoC and Hickory Knoll. Union CoC here on Tuesday. We also packed many bags of groceries for hand out tomorrow.

-Disaster Assistance Mission-Hurricane Isaac-Laplace, LA

Really busy day today we did 501 meals, signed up 10 families that need help and Don had 2 bible studies. We need your help donation information on the right.

Disaster Assistance-Hurricane Isaac-Laplace, LA

Well a long day of driving and on the phone for 10 hours we have arrived. After many calls between myself, Fred Franke and Elder at Hollywood Road CoC we decided that other places had much more damage than Houma. So we are setup at Laplace Church of Christ. Every members house was flooded plus most of the town. All power is out so we are running on generators. Tomorrow we are going to be in full swing, serving meals and volunteers out helping cleanup. We have many Disaster Assistance regulars here, Fred is bring volunteers and Goodwood CoC is bring volunteers from Baton Rouge and I am sure others will also be here. Looks like we will be here a long time. We need your help to continue this mission work.

Hurricane Isaac from Don Hudson

We volunteers with Disaster Assistance got stuck for today in Tuscaloosa. To many storms coming thru. We leave in the morning for Houma, La. We will be working with several areas inundated by flood waters. We may have a high way patrol escort into the area. Folks there are aware we are coming and are looking forward to our presence and help as we work with them both spiritually and physically. They are very receptive in learning of this Jesus and His Church who influenced and made possible our being there to help. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." If want to help, please go to our web site. Wwwdisasterassistancoc@gmail.c​om or call me at 931 698 3150. On behalf of so many hurting people, thank you for your concern and help.

Disaster Assistance Hurricane Isaac - Things continue to get worse.

TANGIPAHOA PARISH, La. – Residents living along the Tangipahoa River were told to quickly evacuate after a potential dam break at Lake Tangipahoa, a breach that could release a torrent of water south into Louisiana. McComb, Miss., mayor Whitney Rawlings said there was a 50 percent chance the dam would fail. He said it was currently holding, but the concern is that it would eventually give. “What they’re doing now is saying, ‘OK, this thing might go. People need to be moving now in case it does go.’ And lord only knows if this thing holds or not,” Rawlings said. Around 10:10 a.m., a mandatory evacuation was called for areas along the Tangipahoa River from Kentwood through Robert, an area that would affect between 50,000 and 60,000 people. Residents within a mile of the river were asked to evacuate.

Disaster Assistance Tracking Isaac

I have arrived in Birmingham, AL with the Mobile Headquarters. We have 2 or 3 other RV's with volunteers arriving tomorrow. We all will wait here until it is safe to go into the affected areas. You can fill out volunteer form on the web site. Donation information is to your right and also on the web page.

Disaster Assistance-Hurricane Isaac

I will be taking the Mobile Headquarters to Birmingham, AL on Monday. From there I will watch and wait to see where landfall is than head that direction. If anyone who has RV wants to meet me there and be part of the First Response just let me know.

Watching Isaac and fires out West.

Tropical Storm Isaac is forecast to continue strengthening steadily as it moves through the northern Lesser Antilles on Wednesday and into the northeast Caribbean by Thursday. Isaac could become a hurricane as early as Thursday. Residents and visitors of the northern Caribbean, Yucatan Peninsula, southeastern United States and the central/eastern Gulf Coast should watch the progress of Isaac closely over the next week or more.

Oklahoma City Wildfires

We are watching the fires across the West and staying in touch with our contacts in each area of concern. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Some Oklahoma residents have returned to emergency s helters despite evacuation orders in many areas of the state being lifted, as wildfires continued to burn. A "monster" fire had devoured almost 91 square miles and continued to burn between Mannford and Kellyville in northeastern Oklahoma's Creek County as light rain and cooler temperatures gave firefighters a brief respite early Sunday, said Oklahoma Forestry Services spokeswoman Michelle Finch-Walker.

I just talked with our contact in Luther, Okla. They said there was 25 homes that was burned there.

Oklahoma Fires

Tracy Streeper hugs five year-old grandson Jesse, as they stand on the north side of Streeper's destroyed home, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012 in Luther, Okla. While residents of one Oklahoma town sifted through their c harred belongings Saturday to salvage what they could after a roaring wildfire that may have been deliberately set, residents in two other towns were being ordered to evacuate their homes. The fire near Luther, which is about 25 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, destroyed nearly five dozen homes and other buildings before firefighters were able to gain some measure of control Saturday. TABLOIDS OUT Photo: AP / AP