Above: Jody Herrington, OBI's director of U.S. disaster relief, monitors Hurricane Ike at the Emergency Operations Center in Texas.

DALLAS - As Hurricane Ike barrels toward the Texas coastline and residents prepare for what officials call “certain death" for those who stay behind, Operation Blessing disaster relief crews are staged and ready to aid locals after the storm.

Leaving their posts in New Orleans after responding to Hurricane Gustav, OBI teams are now poised with supplies and heavy machinery in Dallas.

OBI's national disaster relief staff are on-site, as well as OBI's state of the art mobile command center, a crane, skid steer, shower and construction trailers as well as a mobile kitchen that can feed up to 2,000 people each day.

The team is pre-staging more than 33,000 pounds of disaster relief supplies including nonperishable food and ready-to-eat meals for immediate response.

"We are monitoring Ike's progress and will move our staff and equipment to a strategic safe-area once we have a better idea of where Ike will hit the coast," said Jody Herrington director of U.S. disaster relief. “This will enable us to launch our response within hours after the storm."

Herrington discusses OBI's response plan with a representative from Health and Human Services.

OBI arrived in Texas yesterday via New Orleans, where they spent the last week assisting residents of St. Bernard Parish following hurricane Gustav. There, they provided 5,600 free hot meals for residents, managed distribution of 19 tons of ice, assisted with debris removal, and distributed 255,000 pounds of emergency relief supplies including food, water, hygiene kits and disposable diapers.

Hurricane Ike is expected to make landfall late tonight or early tomorrow morning and could produce ocean surge up to 20 feet high. Government and weather officials have not warned of such dire emergency conditions since Hurricane Katrina.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help by making an online donation toward OBI's disaster relief efforts. With your support, we can continue to provide emergency relief and recovery. Please make an on-line donation today.

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