Samaritan's Purse: Responding to Hurricane Ike

Samaritan’s Purse volunteers, like these working in Donaldsonville, bring the hope of Christ in the aftermath of storms.

September 13, 2008

Responding to Hurricane Ike

Samaritan’s Purse staff and equipment arrive in Texas to help storm victims

Three Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief Units along with a convoy of support vehicles and equipment rolled into Texas on Monday, ready to help people affected by Hurricane Ike.
We are setting bases of operation in the Galveston area, Friendswood, and Port Arthur, three areas that were hard hit by the massive storm. Staff and volunteers will begin removing felled trees from homes and yards, clearing debris, patching roofs with heavy-duty plastic, making emergency repairs, and cleaning out thick mud and debris from flooded homes.
Ike officially made landfall in the Galveston area just after 2 a.m. local time on Saturday as a powerful Category 2 storm. It slammed the Texas coast with 110 mph winds and towering waves, smashing houses, flooding thousands of homes, blowing out windows in Houston's skyscrapers, and cutting off power to more than 3 million people, perhaps for weeks.
The storm, nearly as big as Texas itself, blasted a 500-mile stretch of coastline in Louisiana and Texas. It breached levees, flooded roads and led more than 1 million people to evacuate and seek shelter inland. Hurricane winds battered the coast for hours before and after the storm's center came ashore.
As we begin to work in response to Hurricane Ike, Samaritan's Purse is continuing to help people who were impacted by Hurricane Gustav. We sent two Disaster Relief Units to Louisiana, and have been working in Baton Rouge and Donaldsonville since September 2.
One unit remains in Donaldsonville, where there is still a great need. We have helped some 300 families in Louisiana who were affected by Gustav.

WAYS YOU CAN HELP

PRAY:

Please pray for those affected by the storm. Pray for the volunteers who will be helping us with this response, and that people affected by the storm will see God’s care and concern as we work.

GIVE:

To support the ministry of Samaritan's Purse to the hurricane victims, please visit our donation page.

GET INVOLVED:

If your Christian group is interested in volunteering with our U.S. Disaster Relief Teams, please start by reading the information and filling out the questionnaire on our U.S. Disaster Relief page.

Samaritan's Purse