Captain Jessie Chapman gives spiritual and emotional support to hurricane victims Rosalee Sheffield, her granddaughter,and their neighbor Melissa McShan. Rosalee told Captain Chapman that 18 years ago The Salvation Army helped her fight drug addiction and regain custody of her children. Captain Chapman is on the coast helping families get their lives back together following the devastation from Hurricane Isaac.
Levon Kersh of the Jackson Corps gives hot meals and water to victims of Hurricane Isaac. Levon is part of the team deployed to the coast to help storm victims.
The Jackson Corps assisted the operations on the coast by sending Captain Jessie Chapman, Rick Grange, and Willie Bonner. Other team members not pictured are Julius McGhee and Levon Kersh. The team was dispatched to the area hours after Hurricane Isaac made landfall. The team has served more than 9-thousand hot meals and given away thousands of gallons of water. Your donations are being used on the ground in the storm ravaged area as the Jackson Corps staff works around the clock to help those in need.
Captain Jessie Chapman hopped on a forklift and unloaded an 18-wheeler full of supplies to aid storm victims on the coast.
Here is an update on all coastal relief efforts:
The Salvation Army is continuing to provide shelter, food, hydration, and emotional and spiritual care in the wake of Hurricane Isaac.
· The Salvation Army has moved emergency response teams into Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and other states, including Florida, where Isaac first impacted the U.S.
· In response to the storm, The Salvation Army has provided approximately:
· 40,680 snacks
o Emotional and spiritual care to 1,651 individuals
o 901 comfort kits
o 931 Persons Sheltered
o 11,148 hours of employee and volunteer service
The Salvation Army has 16 mobile feeding units (canteens), a fully equipped 54-foot field kitchen, and approximately 60 personnel that have deployed to hard-hit areas.
o There are 260 of these units in the southern United States alone and more than 600 nationwide.
· Specifically, mobile kitchens and Salvation Army personnel have also been deployed to New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA, and Pascagoula and Gulfport, MS.
o The Salvation Army is providing meals and spiritual counseling at 16 locations throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.
· The Salvation Army has two mobile feeding units providing food, water, and emotional and spiritual assistance to survivors in the Acreage and Loxahatchee communities of Palm Beach County, FL following massive flooding and widespread power outages.
· AmeriCares has donated family emergency kits and cleaning supplies for Mississippi families impacted by the storm, which will be distributed by The Salvation Army in Gulfport, MS.
· To assist with relief efforts, energy company BP America made a $1 million donation that will be split equally between the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army to support efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi. A portion of the donation will also help provide assistance to employees and their families in the region.
· In addition, from now through September 16, Albertsons LLC, with stores in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas, will run an in-store fundraiser to support The Salvation Army’s Hurricane Isaac disaster response and recovery efforts.
· In addition to food, hydration, emotional and spiritual care, The Salvation Army is also prepared to provide:
· Clean-up kits containing brooms, mops, buckets and cleaning supplies
· Hygiene kits
· Shower units
· First-aid supplies
· Communications support
Monetary donations are the most critical need as supplies and personnel are mobilized.
· You can also text the word “STORM” to 80888 to make a $10 donation through your mobile phone; to confirm your gift, respond with the word “Yes.”*
· Checks should be mailed to The Salvation Army Disaster Relief, P.O. Box 1959, Atlanta, GA 30301 and designate “2012 Hurricane Season.”
· Those interested in volunteering should register at www.disaster.salvationarmyusa.org. Please note that disaster service training is a prerequisite for volunteering in a disaster zone and not all registered volunteers will be called on to serve.
· At this point, in-kind donations, such as used clothing and used furniture, are not being accepted for hurricane relief. However, these items are vital to supporting the day-to-day work of your local Salvation Army.
Your donations make a real difference.
· A $10 donation feeds a disaster survivor for one day.
· A $30 donation provides one food box, containing staple foods for a family of four, or one household cleanup kit, containing brooms, mops, buckets and other cleaning supplies
· A $100 donation can serve snacks and drinks for 125 survivors and emergency personnel at the scene of a disaster
· A $250 donation can provide one hot meal to 100 people or keep a hydration station operational for 24 hours
· A $500 donation keeps a Salvation Army canteen (mobile feeding unit) fully operational for one day
The Salvation Army is one of the nation’s largest providers of disaster service and responds to hundreds of disasters across the country each year.
· Hurricane Katrina (August 2005): The Salvation Army provided more than 5.6 million meals to survivors and first responders of Hurricane Katrina, and 2.5 million people were assisted with emergency food, casework, emotional and spiritual care.
· Haitian Earthquake (January 2010): The Salvation Army packaged and delivered more than 10 million meals to Haiti, and more than 27,000 survivors were treated at Salvation Army medical facilities. Additionally, The Salvation Army distributed approximately 8,000 hygiene kits.
· U.S. Tornado Outbreak (April & May 2011): The Salvation Army served nearly one million meals and distributed 50,000 hygiene kits, and more than 10,000 people received emotional and spiritual care.
Salvation Army Statements
Major George Hood, National Community Relations & Development Secretary
· “A special thanks goes out to BP America for their $1M donation to help The Salvation Army and Red Cross provide critical relief services to the survivors of Isaac. We would also like to thank Albertsons LLC, who is raising funds to support The Salvation Army at their outlets.”
· “The Salvation Army is currently providing essential services, such as food, hydration and emotional and spiritual care to Gulf Coast residents and first responders.”
· “Now is not the time to let up. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who now have to deal with these trying times following the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac.”
