Samaritan's
Purse is responding
to devastating tornadoes
Samaritan’s
Purse is responding to a series of vicious storms that pounded the
Oklahoma City area Sunday and Monday.
Staff
members are on their way to the affected area to determine how we can
help the people impacted by the tornadoes that raked the area. Two
Disaster Relief Units departed from our North Carolina headquarters
before dawn on Tuesday.
Staff
members at the Samaritan’s Purse U.S. Disaster Relief headquarters
pray before two Disaster Relief Units depart for Oklahoma Tuesday
morning.
A
mile-wide twister pounded the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, leveling
homes, businesses and schools in Moore. At least 51 people were
killed, including 20 children trapped inside their elementary school
when the storm hit. Authorities expect the death toll to rise.
The
funnel cloud could be seen for miles, creating a debris field several
miles wide. Weather officials estimated the strength of the tornado
to be an EF-4 or EF-5, with winds of more than 200 mph winds. In
Moore, entire neighborhoods are in ruins. Houses are reduced to
debris piles, and cars and trucks are strewn along roadsides.
Samaritan’s
Purse responded when Moore was hit hard by a tornado in 1999. That
storm included the highest winds ever recorded near the earth’s
surface, 302 mph, and killed 36 people.
On
Sunday, another large tornado hit Shawnee, a town southeast of
Oklahoma City, leveling several mobile homes, overturning vehicles,
and killing at least one person, according to news reports.
The
storms were part of a severe system that generated tornadoes in
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Dozen of counties in Kansas, Nebraska,
Iowa, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri were
placed under tornado watches and warnings.
Samaritan’s
Purse is also responding to tornadoes that hit Hood County in Texas
on Wednesday night. Volunteers began helping in Granbury on Monday,
the first day we were allowed into the affected area.
Please
pray for the people impacted by the storms, and for those in danger
from the severe weather. Please pray for Samaritan’s Purse as we
work in Texas and prepare to help in Oklahoma.