When disaster strikes anywhere in the country, it could be residents of Trigg County who rush to aid victims at the site. Members of the Little River Baptist Association Disaster Relief team have the equipment, training and will to help in the face of catastrophe.

Co-team leader Archie Brock said that disaster relief teams have been organized convention-wide and through the National Mission board. “Each state has a board, and individual churches and association can take part with their equipment.”

Brock said that the Little River Team owns a trailer equipped with four regular chainsaws, one pole chainsaw, shovels, rakes, two large water pumps, two pressure washers, two air compressors, an electrical generator, tools and other equipment, including safety equipment for rescue workers.

“It was in April, a year ago that the Lord laid on my heart that we could have a disaster trailer,” said Brock. “I shared it with the director of missions and some others and found others had the same hope. We presented it to a board meeting and they voted to purchase the equipment and allocated $12,000 that was not in the budget. We felt there was a need for such a trailer and asked member churches to donate, and they did.”

Brock said that many local merchants provided the equipment for the trailer at cost or at a discounted price. Members of the team are all volunteers.

“We have training for all of our volunteers at three levels,” Brock said. “The first is basic training, the second deals with chainsaws, and the third is about leadership. At larger disaster sites, crew leaders send their crews out on different jobs, while an overall coordinator determines the needs in the area, takes a list of jobs and assigns them to crews. We have a large number of people with first level training. Usually we send about 10 to 12 people to a disaster site, depending n the number of people available.”

For the rest of this story, read this week's Cadiz Record.