Things are continuing to develop in Florida as several of our ACS Disaster Response Team members from various conferences are actively engaged in the Hurricane relief in the Gulf region of Florida. Significant damage to both our churches and the community at large has been reported. The conferences involved in the Recovery Efforts are Gulf States, South Central, Southeast, Florida, and Carolina.
Several local churches have been generous enough to lend their facility and services. The Gulf States Conference Spanish Church led by Pastor Guerrero, has been working to meet the needs of the community for the past week from his trailer. We are helping him meet some of the requests of the community by connecting him with donations, and also setting up a Warehouse. We are setting up more Distribution sites with the help of the Gulf States and South Atlantic conferences at the Panama City SDA Church and the Maranatha SDA Church. Due to the damage that the Maranatha church incurred from the storm, the property had to be cleared of debris before being housed as a Distribution site.
With the help of the Southeast Conference, we have secured a Warehouse in Tallahassee which will ensure that Distribution sites are kept stocked with needed items. Though this facility would benefit our sites around the State, it would function as a Multi-Agency Warehouse which would mean millions of people would ultimately be served. Conferences are working together to ensure a positive outcome for those affected. We also have unions and conferences from outside of the Southern Union such as the Pacific Union Conference, and the Northeastern, Greater New York, and Arkansas-Louisiana conferences that have agreed to assist our teams locally.
