In the Wake of Ike

Day 2
September 16, 2008

World Vision volunteers and staff members began the day working together to pack up more hygiene kits. Staff members created palettes of the supplies, then loaded up the twenty-four foot truck. At about 3:30 the truck rolled out of the World Vision Storehouse parking lot.

World Vision Church Relations Director in Dallas, Cassie Wyssbrod, says she spoke with Rev. Randy Vaughan from Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Port Arthur, Texas—an area close to the Louisiana border. The assessment team plans to visit Rev. Vaughan’s church first thing on Wednesday where they will make a distribution.

Cassie says, “When I told him that we could come with supplies and we’d like to meet him and we’d like him to be a part of our assessment [team], he was just thrilled.”

“[Rev. Vaughan] offered to go with us over to Houston because he’s also the director of the national disaster response for the denomination (National Baptist Convention). So we’re going to help the community where he ministers the church as well as the vulnerable communities over in Houston and Galveston,” she says.

Rev. Vaughan described the scene on the coast, “That whole area really got hit hard by the storm and that’s an area where you have a lot of people in need. The need is tremendous. The lines are long. The American Red Cross ran out of supplies today. The Salvation Army ran out of supplies. There’s no gas. And people just aren’t sure what to do.”

Tomorrow World Vision’s assessment team will get its first glimpse of the devastated areas and begin distributing the relief supplies that volunteers have been packaging since Hurricane Ike hit.

We’ll bring you the pictures and video on tomorrow’s blog.

Posted by Laura Reinhardt and Tom Costanza on assignment in Texas. Tom is Video Creative Director for World Vision in the United States. Laura is Assignment Editor for World Vision in the United States .