UPDATE
Hurricane/Tropical Storm Laura moved through Texas/Louisiana early Thursday morning and Arkansas mid-day. Storm reports are widespread across the three states.
On the coast of Louisiana, damage reports were catastrophic. Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief will be focusing efforts on the area of Lake Charles, Louisiana. In this area, their infrastructure took a significant hit. They are without electricity and cellular communications. Additionally, their water treatment plan took a significant hit and is currently offline. The damage seems to be a direct result of both wind damage and flooding.
In Arkansas, damage reports are minor and scattered across the state. There have been some reports of trees and limb down in several locations.
SERVE
A feeding team has been placed at the Red River Baptist Association in Arkadelphia on standby for feeding if the need arose. They have the capacity to produce 5,000 meals from food provided by the Salvation Army. These resources will be moved to Louisiana if there is no need in Arkansas.
Additionally, several Arkansas units are being activated and sent to Louisiana. The Ozark Shower/Laundry Unit as well as Unit 1 Feeding, Incident Management Team and Communications team are heading to Louisiana to assist with volunteers and residents cleaning-up.
PRAY
Please pray for DR leadership as they begin to assess and make assignments for the week ahead, as well as pray for those who have sustained damage both at home and specifically those in Louisiana/Texas as they begin to pick up the pieces of what is left and rebuild.