DECATUR - A group of area residents were among 2,000 volunteers helping in the cleanup after wildfires and flash floods stripped thousands of acres in Southern California.

Bob Jackson of Sullivan led a team of individuals from Sullivan, Mattoon, Lincoln, Findlay and Tower Hill. They wore yellow shirts and hats to distinguish them among other volunteers working in knee-deep mud in the ravaged area.

"Since all the land is burned away, with no brush or grass, the problem is now all the rain causing mudslides," Jackson said after returning home last week.

The Central Illinois group is just a small portion of the Southern Baptist Association's Disaster Relief, with teams in about every state.

People often see the American Red Cross or Salvation Army on the scene of a natural disaster, not realizing that the yellow-shirted Southern Baptists are in the background helping those in need.

It started with a few Baptist men from Texas who went to help storm victims after Hurricane Beulah ravaged the Rio Grande Valley area in 1967.

The North American Mission Board, part of the national Southern Baptist Convention, along with Baptist leaders took on the task of organizing teams equipped to respond to natural disasters - by providing manpower, ministry and financial help.

The Southern Baptists also have 335 mobile units for mass feeding, recovery and child care or to use as command centers.

"We have trained 1,600 people in the state for different areas like chaplaincy, recovery/cleanup and to work the mobile feeding units that can prepare up to 25,000 meals," said Jack Shelby, who lives in Springfield and is the state director for the Illinois Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

He said several Southern Baptist disaster relief teams were out cleaning up after the tornado in Springfield last year.

And many went to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. "We had hot meals prepared within 36 hours after Hurricane Katrina hit," Shelby said.

While New Orleans has been by far the biggest response area, Shelby said many volunteers are still there helping rebuild more than 1,000 homes.

He said when the first wave of Southern California wildfires spread, mostly food and shower units were needed.

Now, volunteer cleanup teams are sifting through the ashes and rubble, trying to recover items for families; mud-out teams have been helping clean out homes from the mudslides after heavy rainfall and flash floods.

Jackson's team worked at a Native American reservation in Ramona, northeast of San Diego. Trailer homes on the reservation had burned down, and not much was left, he said.

"We just went through all the rubble, trying to recover items for families and separated those items for hazmat (hazardous material teams) to come and dispose of," he said.

So far, Jackson and his team have traveled to New Hampshire and Minnesota after flash floods this year. They also helped Buffalo, N.Y., dig out of 24 inches of snow and cleared tree limbs from Decatur's ice storm last year.

The Southern Baptist Association's Disaster Relief is considered the third-largest agency of its kind in the United States.

"We are like a well-kept secret," said Mike Ebert, spokesman for North American Mission Board, part of the Southern Baptist Convention. "We have an agreement with FEMA, American Red Cross and Salvation Army and have the largest group of volunteers specifically for disasters - 75,000 volunteers."

He said there is a hand-in-hand relationship among the agencies. Most of the food preparation and cooking is done by the Southern Baptist teams, and the Red Cross delivers the meals.

One of the more important tasks for the Southern Baptists is providing spiritual consultation and praying with people during times of disasters. "It's about sharing Christ and how he can make a difference in their lives," Ebert said.

Shelby also echoes that sentiment. "I think we bring encouragement and hope when someone has lost everything," he said.

Sheila Smith can be reached at sheilas@herald-review.com or 421-7963.

Growing need

A recent report by Oxfam International, a confederation of 13 organizations working in different countries to end poverty and injustice is saying global warming and rising green gas emissions are the major cause of weather-related disasters.

"This year, we have seen floods in South Asia, across the breadth of Africa and Mexico that have affected more than 250 million people," said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam Great Britain's director.

* The world suffered 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, compared to the current figure of about 500 per year.

* The number of people affected by extreme natural disaster has surged by almost 70 percent, from 174 million a year between 1985 and 1994, to 254 million a year between 1995 and 2004.

* Floods and wind storms have increased from 60 events in 1980 to 240 last year, with flooding itself up six-fold.