Oklahoma Baptist Group May Be Heading To Dallas Area

Oklahomans are constantly helping respond at a moment's notice during emergencies like the Dallas tornados.

Nearly 200 members of Oklahoma's Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Organization held a training session this weekend in Owasso. It's training that will help their neighbors and nationwide.

After powerful tornados ripped through the Dallas Fort Worth area, damaging hundreds of homes, members of Oklahoma's Southern Baptist Disaster Relief organization were put on alert.

State leaders say volunteers could be activated to go to Texas early next week.

"You have to know what you're doing when you get there," said volunteer Mike Maxwell.

They'll be ready to help because of ongoing training.

"We respond to disasters within three hours," Maxwell said.

Oklahoma's Baptist teams hold frequent training sessions - eight so far this year - nine more are planned this spring in communities across the state.

Volunteer Mike Maxwell says the training is critical.

"We'd be in confusion, and we try to eliminate that and be ready to go," he said.

The group has more than 5,000 volunteers statewide who run chainsaws, set up shower trailers, and operate 17 mobile feeding trailers like this one with the Tulsa-Metro group.

"We got two convection ovens right now, mounted and we've got space for two more and this trailer when it gets on site, you just open up the doors, hook up the hoses and start cooking," Maxwell explained.

Maxwell says with that equipment and the ongoing training, the more good they can do, and the faster they can do it, when tornados like the ones that hit Dallas happen again.

"People will call me, they'll email me, ‘can I go? Do I need to go? When are we leaving?' It's just overwhelming sometimes the generosity of the Oklahomans to do something like this," Maxwell said.

Oklahoma's Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Teams also have several training sessions planned for this fall during the secondary storm season.