Mark Wakefield says Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have been working steadily for a long time as hurricane after hurricane has pounded the Southeast, starting with Hurricane Laura relief in Louisiana in August.

And now they’re scattered across the state helping people clean up after Hurricane Zeta rolled through. Zeta made landfall Oct. 28, then cut a swath through the state throughout the night and into the early morning hours of Oct. 29.

WORKING LOCALLY

Many disaster relief teams “are taking care of their own associations and areas,” said Wakefield, Alabama’s lead strategist for Disaster Relief, in an interview on Nov. 3.

He also noted that teams were offering hot meals and shower and laundry services to line workers restoring power to those still without. More than a half-million homes and businesses were without power immediately following the storm. As of Nov. 4, utility companies reported an estimated 20,000 outages remaining, most in harder to access remote areas of Central Alabama.

This article was originally published here at The Alabama Baptist.