Hurricane Idalia made landfall along the Florida coast Wednesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane. While the storm will not impact Texas, there are relief groups sending help to Florida.
John Hall, spokesman for the Texas Baptist Men, shared Tuesday that the trucks were packed and ready to go.
"We do a lot of things, we have chainsaws and we prepare meals," Hall said. "What we really do is we walk alongside people in their most difficult days. That's what this is really about."
One of the first items on the Texas Baptist Men's checklist is to feed those impacted by the hurricane.
"Their freezer's gone, their refrigerator is gone, it's got 3 feet of water in it," said Joe Crutchfield, volunteer and lead logistics for TBM's feeding service. "The cabinetry has 4 feet of mud in it I mean there is nothing that they can salvage so they may not have eaten a hot meal for days."
And the volunteer group is prepared to feed large numbers of people for the long haul.
"We can set up and feed around 35,000 meals a day, which takes around 35-40 volunteers per week," Crutchfield said. "And we can stay gone for weeks and weeks, just replace and rotate volunteers in and out."
Hall said Tuesday that thousands of volunteers were on standby, waiting for the storm to make landfall. Their resources won't just help provide food, showers, and laundry but they'll be able to help provide power to some buildings.
"To knock on someone's door who hasn't had electricity for days, or has had a home that has been flooded in some cases still has the water in it or has a tree sitting on their home," Hall said. "To knock on that door or to just meet them at the property because they can't stay there is incredibly humbling."
The hurricane will just be another natural disaster the group is helping with this summer. Hall said they've helped provide relief to wildfires victims everywhere from Maui to Canada to Bastrop County in Texas.
North Texas electric provider Oncor is monitoring the situation but has not yet mobilized crews to go to Florida. Entergy is sending crews from Arkansas because crews from the nearest state typically get sent first.
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