Samaritan’s Purse deploys trucks to wildfire disaster sites
By Melanie Davis
melanie@highcountrymedia.net

A disaster relief convoy has reached San Diego County in California from Boone. For the first time in its history, Boone-based relief organization Samaritan’s Purse dispatched all four of its tractor-trailer disaster relief units.

The tractor-trailers, along with an additional nine support vehicles and volunteers from Watauga County, arrived in California over the weekend.

Each truck is fully stocked with tools and supplies to bring aid and help to rebuild in the wake of the wildfires that have destroyed nearly a half million acres. More than 1,000 residential, commercial and industrial buildings have been burned in the wildfires that have been raging since Oct. 21.

The goal of the Samaritan's Purse volunteers is to help families salvage materials and personal items from the wreckage and rebuild.

Working with local churches in San Diego County, Samaritan's Purse identifies the communities in the most need and sets up the tractor-trailers as a base for emergency operations.

Tom Layton, spokesperson for the Boone-based non-profit, describes the disaster relief units as “rolling hardware stores.”

The units are fully stocked at all times to meet the needs of families displaced by storms, fires, tornadoes, floods or whatever disaster may happen. With generators, radios, clean-up supplies and a multitude of tools, the trucks are ready to be dispatched at a moment’s notice.

The disaster units have served more than 14,000 families in 21 states over the past eight years, including helping to rebuild 10,000 homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse said, “We're not firefighters, but we can help people as they deal with the aftermath of these infernos.”

To support the relief efforts of Samaritan's Purse in Southern California, call (800) 789-1525 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.