CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 18, 2020 – After Hurricane Sally made landfall in the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (RRT) deployed chaplains to Foley, Alabama, to provide emotional and spiritual care alongside Samaritan’s Purse.
Along with sustained winds of more than 100 mph, Hurricane Sally brought extensive flooding with as much as 30 inches of rain being dumped on the area from the slow-moving storm. More than 300,000 people are still without power.
“As we see the reports of the devastation from Hurricane Sally, we are heartbroken for all of those who suffered loss,” said Josh Holland, assistant director of the RRT. “Our crisis-trained chaplains know that many times people are dealing with a crisis even before the storm, and along with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this hurricane just compounds their struggle. Our chaplains are already there to listen to people’s stories and to provide emotional and spiritual care to those who need it.”
Foley marks the eighth active deployment—five of which are in response to hurricanes—for the RRT. Teams of chaplains are currently at four sites in Louisiana after Hurricane Laura, two sites on the west coast for wildfires, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after an August storm.
For more information on the ministry, including videos, photos, news articles and an interactive map of former and current deployments, visit BillyGraham.org/RRT. Updates can also be found at Facebook.com/RRTChaplains.
About the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team:
The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team was developed by Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has since grown into an international network of chaplains in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia who are specifically trained to deal with crisis situations. They have deployed to more than 450 disaster sites across the globe, including shootings, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.
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