Following the flooding in Hornick, Iowa, Paster Bob Dillman, Executive Pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church, contacted the Woodbury County Sheriff to let him know that local SBC churches could help with the cleanup effort. Southern Hills Baptist, Heartland Baptist Church, Holly Springs Bible Fellowship Church, and a team from Omaha NE. worked together to clean up homes that were flooded.

Dillman shared, “As I listened to a resident tell her story, I couldn’t imagine what she went through. She told me that the hardest thing for her was closing the door of her house as they were told to evacuate the town and not knowing what they would come back to.”

There are 250 residents in Hornick, every home was affected by water in their basements and some had water on the main floor of there homes. Southern Baptist volunteers were able to help 50 homes.

North Carolina Disaster Relief has adopted the Southwest region of Iowa for flood assistance. Two North Carolina DR representatives flew in on Tuesday 3/26 to make plans for the teams which will arrive soon. week. Iowa Disaster Relief Co-Directors Mike and Shari Carlson met with the representatives from NC to plan the details of the work, which is anticipated to begin next week.
The water has receded somewhat in Hamburg but the water table is so high that water is seeping back into homes as it is pumped out. They are anticipating rain in the area Thursday and Friday and they have begun to release more water into the Missouri River from the dams upstream in the Dakotas to make room for the snowmelt. Hamburg is fearful that this may cause more flooding to return to the town. The other small towns north of Hamburg are still flooded and evacuated.
There will be plenty of opportunities for IA volunteers to work with the NC teams so please contact Mike and Shari at iowadr@bciowa.org if you would like to assist. The work will be based in Shenandoah, IA, at Nishna Valley Christian Church and Christ Point Church.
Thank you for your continued prayers for this work and all the affected people in the flooded areas!