Crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are arriving in Texas to offer emotional and spiritual care to evacuees, and to assess the areas with the greatest need. Billy Graham Rapid Response Team support vehicles are also en route, with more than 100 additional chaplains standing by as the situation and overall destruction becomes clearer.
“Though we all anticipated the impact of Harvey, there’s no way to overstate the ferocity of a storm like this,” said Jack Munday, international director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. “We’re praying for those who have been devastated by the hurricane, and we’ll be there to offer the hope and comfort of Christ to those who are hurting.”
The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team is deploying in coordination with Samaritan’s Purse, the Christian disaster relief organization also headed by Franklin Graham. Together the two ministries will address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those who have been affected.
“As dawn breaks over south Texas, the damage brought by Hurricane Harvey through the night is coming into view with significant flooding still to come. More than 200,000 people are without power. This is the strongest storm to hit the U.S. in more than a decade,” Graham said on his Facebook page this morning. “I know the people of Texas would appreciate your prayers for them during these difficult days.”
The deployment to Texas marks the ministry’s first hurricane response of 2017. Last year, more than 125 trained chaplains ministered to nearly 6,000 people across three areas of North and South Carolina following the impact of Hurricane Matthew.
In addition to the new deployment to Texas, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team has been ministering alongside churches in Barcelona since the August 17 terror attack that killed 13 people and injured scores more. That effort is concluding this weekend.
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 a nationwide network of chaplains in 48 states who are specifically trained to deal with crisis situations. They have deployed to more than 255 disaster sites, including shootings, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.
