Baptist Disaster Relief teams from several states in the US are responding to the damage in the South left by Hurricane Francine, which made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane late Wednesday afternoon (September 12). 

Locals in Louisiana were especially hit hard by the storm, but no fatalities related to the story have been reported. More than 400,ooo people were reportedly left without power in Louisiana and Mississippi.

While we are thankful that things are not as bad as they could be, we are aware of several churches that have been damaged,” said Steve Horn, Louisiana Baptist Convention executive director, in a Baptist Message report. “We already know that some churches that were impacted by Ida in 2021 are damaged again. We are especially heartbroken for these communities.”

Coy Webb, crisis response director for Send Relief, the compassion ministry of the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board said that the downed trees and power lines remained amid damaged homes while some roofs had reportedly been ripped off by winds.

He noted that the storm dumped heavy rains from the Gulf to New Orleans on Wednesday with more than eight inches of rain recorded in multiple areas which resulted in flash flooding and some lingering flooding in area just north of New Orleans.

Francine will “continue to produce rain, and many areas across the south up through the Ohio valley could receive up to 3–6 inches of rain over the next few days,” Webb shared in his report.

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