Rapid Response Team Deploys to New Jersey

March 16, 2011 - As hundreds of New Jersey families have been displaced from their homes after a weekend of flooding, trained chaplains will come along side local churches to help with emotional trauma.

Our chaplains will come along side the local churches in the area to address the emotional and spiritual trauma that accompanies a disaster such as this.

A month’s worth of rain hammered New Jersey in the span of 48 hours this past weekend, prompting a state of emergency in New Jersey and Wednesday’s deployment of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team.

The storm, combined with a spring snowmelt, has swelled lakes and rivers, flooded homes, displacing hundreds of families.

Statewide, New Jersey is experiencing the third wettest winter in 115 years of record-keeping ,with many counties in central New Jersey recording 4 to 6 inches of precipitation during the storm.

The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team has sent crisis-trained chaplains into Wayne, N.J. and the surrounding areas to give hope and comfort to homeowners reeling from the storm.

“Flooding is such a painful disaster,” Jack Munday, director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. “Our chaplains will come along side the local churches in the area to address the emotional and spiritual trauma that accompanies a disaster such as this.”

Those wishing to help support the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team’s deployment in New Jersey may use their cell phone to text "RRT" to 85944 to make a $10 donation.

The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team is a nationwide network of chaplains across 40 states, specifically trained to deal with crisis situations.

Since the ministry was launched in 2002, it has deployed following more than 100 natural and man-made disasters, including hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires and shootings. For more information, visit billygraham.org/rrt or www.facebook.com/BGRapidResponseTeam.