Samaritan's Purse is seeking for large number of volunteers to go to areas affected by the catastrophic flooding in Colorado and help do the debris cleanup.
"Most of what the Samaritan's Purse will be doing is what we call a 'mud-out' or 'muck-out,' and that's where we go in and remove the mud and the yuck and the silt that's there," said Wayne Shoemaker of Samaritan's Purse, according to OneNewsNow.
The Colorado flooding caused by 15 inches or more of precipitation over the span of just few days is said to occur only once-in-a-thousand years, according to National Oceanic and Atomspheric Administration data. It has left six people dead and roughly 200 are still missing (a number that has been steadily dropping with continuing rescue efforts).
Jennifer Hillmann, a spokeswoman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office north of Boulder, said Wednesday, according to NBC News, that widespread airlifts have given way to "pinpoint" rescues and door-to-door searches.
1,502 homes have been destroyed, and another 17,494 were damaged as of Sept. 16, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); 11,750 residents were evacuated in four counties, many by helicopter from small mountain towns cut off when roads washed out, according to TIME.
Property losses will total nearly $2 billion, about half from housing and half from commercial and government sectors, catastrophe modeling firm Eqecat said on Wednesday in the first comprehensive estimate of the disaster's economic toll, the NBC News reports.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said the responders are ending the "high-octane" emergency response to the widespread flooding that began last week "and moving into the long and arduous task ahead."
Volunteers from Samaritans Purse have flown in from Florida and New York. Shoemaker urged Christians with tradesmen and laborers skillsets to serve together with them.
He stressed the most important aspect is that disaster workers and volunteers have an opportunity to share the gospel with disaster victims, and when it's all done, present them with the Billy Graham Bible.
Would-be volunteers can visit the organization's website: www.samaritanspurse.org.
