Helping Hands: Volunteers Provide Meals, Help With Storm Damage Cleanup

Several volunteer groups are in town helping clean up storm damage, and the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is setting up shop at First Baptist Owasso.

The crews have been providing meals, and also cleaning up tree damage.

This is the eighth week this year Kama Vincent has been volunteering with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

She helped cook meals last week for people in the area without power, and also cooks meals for the volunteers.

"Getting to meet the people, and stopping and giving them time to tell their story has been really neat to get to hear," she said.

Vincent said this is a calling by God, and she loves helping people who are in need. She also said she's made friends with other volunteers.

"We've become a family and I have friends I see every time I go out, and we keep up with each other. They are some of the closest friends I have now," she said.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief travels the country and shows up to areas in need after natural disasters.

Ken Taylor is the incident commander and has been working with the group for the past 13 years.

"We've been to hurricanes, we've been to fires, we've been to floods, we do mud-out, we do chainsaw, we do tarping, whatever we can to help you," he said.

He said it's great to lend a helping hand, and they are there to help people with whatever they need.

Volunteers have traveled from all over the country, and he loves seeing people come help Oklahomans.

"It's awesome that other states have said, 'hey, we're coming to help you because you have helped us,' so we are one big team, so it's fantastic to see volunteers show up and devote their time," he said.

Taylor said the group plans to stay in the area to keep working for the next three to four weeks.