MODR Shower and Laundry Take the Spotlight

MODR Shower and Laundry Take the Spotlight

Quite often, the first response from Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief involves flood recovery or chainsaw teams. However, when the area around Spencer, Iowa, received nearly 16 inches of rain in three days, it called for a first response of another kind.

As water from the Oscheyedan River joined the Little Sioux River, which flows through the city of Spencer, nearly 500 homes were affected by flooding … which peaked during the night on June 22. Not only were nearly 40 percent of the houses in town damaged or destroyed, but much of the city was without power, water or sewer service for several days. In response, temporary shelter was quickly provided at the Clay County Regional Event Center on the Clay County Fairgrounds. Since Red Cross had the food covered, the most obvious need otherwise, and the first response from Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief, was to send in shower and laundry units within three days of the disaster.

“On many deployments, flood recovery or chainsaw work is the ‘main event’,” said Toby Tucker, one of the first white hats to oversee the Spencer callout. “In this case, the shower and laundry units were the main events. Even if the people who were affected weren’t staying at the shelter next door, the power and utilities were still out at many homes. Sadly, there were also dozens of washers and dryers setting at the curb that had been destroyed by the flood waters; so laundry and showers at home weren’t an option.”

Hence, it was no surprise that the shower and laundry units were in constant use. In fact, in the first four days of deployment alone MODR assisted the public by providing nearly 200 showers and doing close to 150 loads of laundry.

“We were originally told people would be sheltered at four different locations,” Tucker added. “So, we had sent four separate shower and laundry units to the area, including the ADA shower unit. However, as the city consolidated housing into one location, we also consolidated our services at a location next to the event center.”

In the meantime, assessors and flood recovery teams from Missouri, along with teams from Illinois, Georgia and South Carolina arrived in Spencer to help with clean-up. Consequently, the shower and laundry units have been in constant use since they arrived in Spencer on June 25. In the days since then, MODR has assisted the public and volunteers by providing more than 1,000 showers and doing over 900 loads of laundry.  

“However, the city has since closed the shelter, so we’ve also moved shower and laundry to the Good News Community Church in Okoboji, where teams are staying,” said Gaylon Moss, MODR State Director. “Even though most of the showers and laundry loads have been for volunteers, we won’t turn away anyone from the public who still needs laundry service.”

In the meantime, DR teams have completed 75 work requests with 27 still open as of the end of July.

“Several requests, which turned out to only need an application of Shockwave for mold, were taken care of by the assessors as they surveyed the damage,” Moss added.

“However, even though we’ve made tremendous progress in bringing help, hope and healing to Spencer residents, the best news is that we’ve seen five salvations, including one person that has already expressed an interest in being baptized.”

Ironically, that salvation came through Judy Egleston, who had previously been helping with the shower unit. When asked to go out on a chaplain visit, though, she quickly volunteered, encouraging the woman to accept Christ as her Savior. The bad news is, shortly after returning to her duties with the shower trailer, she missed a step, causing her to fall and break her hip. Thankfully, Mike and Brenda Hibbard were able to follow up with the woman and lead her in a profession of faith.

“I wouldn’t recommend a broken hip to anyone,” Egleston said, “but if it meant someone being saved for eternity, it was a price worth paying.” “Please continue to pray for the citizens of Spencer, and the many volunteers as we try to be the hands and feet of Jesus,” Moss concludes. “We’ve still got a few weeks to go.”

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