A second wave of volunteers from the Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief team left Friday morning to help residents in New York and New Jersey recover from the destruction left by Hurricane Sandy.
About 80 volunteers and two 18-wheelers left Oklahoma early Friday morning to join Dan Fuller and his team, who with their portable kitchens left in convoy for the teams' staging area in Middletown, N.Y., Thursday morning, said Sam Porter, Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief director, a ministry of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO).
"Dan's team should be cooking its first meal by noon Saturday," said Porter by phone on Friday morning.
The second wave of volunteers are from across Oklahoma including cities and towns in Southwest Oklahoma such as Anadarko, Duncan, Marlow, Medicine Park and Paul's Valley.
The teams will head to the New York City and New Jersey areas with the primary goal of helping the underinsured, elderly and needy clean up after Hurricane Sandy's landfall on Tuesday. Volunteers who left Oklahoma on Friday include three, 10-person chainsaw teams to clear trees and debris and a mud-out team from Norman to help victims clean out their flooded homes along with a few more food service people and another portable kitchen. With all the portable kitchens on site, the food service team will be able to provide 35,000 meals a day, Porter said.
"They provide the food and we provide the volunteers to prepare it and serve it. We're blessed that we have selfless volunteers willing to give up their time and talents to help support fellow Americans in need," he said.
Tuesday May 21st, 2013 • 10:05:17pm
