Christian relief agency sending specially equipped Disaster Relief Unit, recruiting clean-up volunteers

CALGARY, AB – Sept. 24, 2018 — Samaritan’s Purse Canada is helping tornado victims in the Ottawa-Gatineau region by sending one of its specially equipped Disaster Relief Units to the area, and recruiting volunteers to clean damaged homes and properties.

Emergency management officials in Ottawa have welcomed the assistance. More than 40 homes in the community of Dunrobin alone were damaged or destroyed by Friday’s tornadoes. Thirty people were injured across the region and hundreds of thousands lost electrical power. Some are still waiting for power to return.

“People in Ottawa-Gatineau need help right now and we want to help them start on the road to recovery,” said Brent Davis, Samaritan’s Purse Canada’s response director.

Anyone needing Samaritan’s Purse clean-up assistance can call 1-844-547-2663. Anyone who wants to volunteer to help clean out damaged homes and properties should visit SamaritansPurse.ca.

Samaritan’s Purse’s Disaster Relief Units are tractor trailers outfitted with essential disaster recovery equipment including generators, pumps, hand tools, and safety gear for volunteers. The units also serve as volunteer coordination centers, and are equipped with a self-contained office, communications system, and other supplies.

In recent years, Samaritan’s Purse has aided victims of a wide variety of natural disasters in Canada including floods in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, and British Columbia, plus wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and the B.C. interior.

Samaritan’s Purse has also helped victims of international disasters including Hurricane Florence, hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma in 2017, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in 2016, the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, and the 2011 earthquake/tsunami in Japan.

Samaritan’s Purse’s “sister” organization, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada, often helps by providing crisis-trained chaplains to comfort and pray with disaster victims.

Four crisis-trained Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (RRT) chaplains are in the Ottawa-Gatineau region to offer emotional and spiritual support to traumatized victims of two tornadoes that slammed into the area last Friday.

“We are praying for the people of Ottawa-Gatineau and our chaplains are preparing to provide Christ’s compassion, care, and love to residents and emergency responders,” said Merle Doherty, manager of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada’s RRT chaplains.

More than 40 homes in the community of Dunrobin alone were damaged or destroyed by the tornadoes. Thirty people were injured across the region and hundreds of thousands lost electrical power. Some are still waiting for power to return.

The volunteer chaplains will be working alongside volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse as they help to clean up properties and prepare damaged homes for repair.

This is the third RRT Ontario deployment this year. In April, chaplains ministered in Toronto after a high speed van attack along Yonge Street killed 10 people and injured 16. In July, chaplains offered a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on and, when appropriate, prayers to residents and restaurant employees after a shooting rampage left three people dead (including the suspected shooter) and 13 injured in a busy tourist and restaurant district of Toronto.

The chaplains will stay in Ottawa-Gatineau for as long as needed.

Information provided by Samaritan's Purse Canada and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada.

DRU generic pic 640x480