USA (MNN) — After over two dozen tornadoes devastated three states this weekend, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee is sending an
Assessment Team to the area of Picher,
Oklahoma.
Even as Disaster Response Services workers Doug and Mary Van
Der Meuleun begin assessing the damage, AP News reports that more stormy
weather is expected on Tuesday.
This weekend’s tornadoes killed at least 26 people and
destroyed hundreds of buildings, including an entire town of 1,000 people in Georgia. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses are
also without power in the wake of the storms which hit Missouri
as well as Georgia and Oklahoma.
Doug and Mary Van Der Meulen with CRWRC’s Assessment Team will
gather information to prepare a focused response to the disaster. The ministry may also help clean up and
provide shelter, as well as go door-to-door assessing individual needs.
CRWRC focuses on ministry to those without insurance, the
elderly, the disabled, and those beyond other assistance.
On Sunday, National Guard troops arrived in Picher, Oklahoma,
to carry out search-and-rescue and recovery operations. President Bush has promised federal aid to
the region.
AP News also reports that the Environmental Protection
Agency is checking Picher, a former mining town, for high levels of lead.
