Three Years Later... Gustav

Three years ago I, along with many of you, was watching the most devastating storm in our country's history tear through LA. Today, on Katrina's anniversary, it is a very eerie feeling to be deep into preparations for a hurricane evacuation, and for our team, preparing for the aftermath.

For even if Gustav bypasses New Orleans, it will hit somewhere, and we expect that our team will be impacted, as the aftermath will result in despair in peoples live. There will be a mission field created in the wake of Gustav, somewhere on the Gulf Coast, on Tuesday morning.

We have been spending the last several days in preparation mode. We are in high gear today. We are expecting that even with a glancing blow to N.O., that there will be street flooding from the rain. Some heavy summer rains have resulted in as much of 3' of flooding in the city. We headed into the city early this morning to secure all of our job sites, retrieve tools, and move supplies up. We also stopped at Pastor Gerhardt's house (Castle Rock Community Church), to help get things out of their lower level. This afternoon, we will secure all our tools and equipment in containers and then get trailers restocked with tree cutting and gutting tools and equipment. We also have a lot of equipment to repair.

People here are very nervous at best, many are fearful and a few even heading towards panic. The scars of Katrina run deep. Lines in stores are long. Gas prices jumped 15 cents at one station we passed over a two hour period. Everyone is glued to the storm track websites. Traffic leaving N.O. at noon was like rush hour.

*Pray for people here.
*Pray for wisdom for our team in making evacuation decisions and planning for how we respond to the aftermath.
*Pray for our sovereign God to accomplish His perfect will and purposes in the storm.

Mark Lewis, Director
EFCA TouchGlobal Crisis Response