Tony Wolfe said as he drives around his state, he sees months and months of work to do in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

“This may be the biggest disaster at least in terms of wind damage that our state has ever known,” said Wolfe, executive director-treasurer for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

On Sept. 26 and 27, Helene barreled through Florida, Georgia and South Carolina before hanging over North Carolina and Tennessee and causing unprecedented flooding. The death toll from the storm is rising — more than 175 have been confirmed dead.

And thousands of people across the five states are trying to deal with the lack of power, find those who are missing, clean up roads and houses and find food to eat.

‘Come and serve our neighbors’

“Pray that God would continue to put it on the hearts of His people to come and serve our neighbors and our neighborhoods for months, 6 to 12 or maybe even 18 months,” Wolfe said.

The first Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief teams are already on the ground in South Carolina as well as Georgia, said Mark Wakefield, ABDR strategist.

ABDR is running point on Southern Baptist disaster relief efforts in Clearwater, South Carolina, with a feeding team preparing and serving meals to the surrounding county. Chainsaw crews are also helping with cleanup.

“We have 250 jobs turned in for chainsaw help,” Wakefield said. “And we’re steadily climbing — I would be surprised if we didn’t hit 500 soon. The more teams we have out, the more people see the logo and they’ll ask for help.”

Between that site and the team serving in the mobile kitchen in Alma, Georgia, Alabama Baptists have about 100 volunteers currently on the ground. But many more are still needed, Wakefield said.

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This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.