A Christian mission agency is hard at work to bring relief to an island nation that was hit hard by Hurrican Beryl in the past week.
Samaritan’s Purse says in a news release that its DC-8 departed Greensboro, North Carolina, Tuesday morning, with a 13-member Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) and 24 tons of life-saving relief for hurricane-devastated residents of Grenada in the south Caribbean’s Windward Islands.
"Hurricane Beryl pummeled the Windward Islands, and left thousands of families in need of emergency relief," said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse.
Less than 24 hours after the hurricane made landfall, the Samaritan's Purse DC-8 cargo plane departed Greensboro, NC. with 600 rolls of tarp, 3,000 solar lights, a desalination water unit, 300 collapsible jerry cans, and a mobile medical unit. In addition to these emergency relief supplies, the cargo plane also transported 13 disaster response specialists to Grenada.
Five Canadians are on the team, according to the release, "to bring help and the hope of Jesus Christ to families who are grappling with severe loss in the aftermath of the storm."
"We started building out pallets of cargo before the hurricane even made landfall and are now on the way with life-saving aid," Graham said. "Please join me in praying for the families who are in the path of this storm, and for our Samaritan’s Purse staff who will be serving them."
Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in Grenada as a Category 4 hurricane—the earliest on record—quickly grew in strength to a Category 5, bringing devastating floods, high-wind damage, and power outages to the Windward Islands. Samaritan’s Purse is preparing to distribute emergency shelter material and set up water filtration systems in areas that have been heavily damaged and are now without access to clean water. The organization is coordinating with church partners in the area that Samaritan's Purse has worked with through its project Operation Christmas Child.