Christian aid groups deploy to Gulf Coast after Hurricane Isaias

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, October 14, 2026

As hundreds of thousands of people along the U.S. Gulf Coast remain without power after Hurricane Isaias, Christian relief organizations are providing food, water and aid supplies to residents of hard-hit areas, while helping clean up damage and offering spiritual support to survivors.

Isaias became the first major hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season to make landfall in the U.S. when it struck the Gulf Coast over the weekend.

“Pensacola took a pretty good beating,” Operation Blessing President Drew Friedrich told The Christian Post, referring to the Florida Panhandle city where the Virginia-based charity has centered its operations.

The area experienced high winds and much rainfall, causing over 300,000 people to lose power. As of Monday afternoon, Friedrich estimated that about 175,000 people were still without power.

Operation Blessing has distributed at least 684 disaster relief kits provided by the Home Depot Foundation, 5,760 hygiene kits, more than 700 hot meals, 240 meal kits and 23 pallets of bottled water. 

Friedrich expects Operation Blessing to remain on the ground in Pensacola “at least through the week." Operation Blessing has six people on the ground. They include a chef, four others running deployments and “one media guy," the charity president explained. He said the team has not “seen a ton of homes that were lost” but has found “lots of homes that were damaged.”

“We’ve certainly seen some places where roofs were really damaged or even ripped off in some cases,” he added.

“Once power is restored, people will probably begin to get back in their homes, and some of that need will dissipate," he said. “Right now, there’s still a huge need, especially for food and water, in these first couple of days. And so we’ll plan to be there at least through this week. We’ve got a good team there.”

As the week goes on, Operation Blessing will identify what needs remain. 

Noting that about a quarter of the population in the hardest-hit area lives in poverty, Friedrich said there is “a tremendous amount of opportunity to distribute aid.”

“Even just today, we had a 53-foot Operation Blessing tractor-trailer pull in and, within about two hours, we had not only unloaded the truck but also distributed everything on that truck, which is water, hygiene kits, food kits and also cleanup kits after disaster.”

“In addition to the hot meals that we’re serving, there’s lots of other needs that we’re fulfilling with all those various pieces,” he said.

Operation Blessing is partnering with Pensacola-based Brownsville Church, but Friedrich sees the potential to expand its relief efforts to other churches and areas along the Gulf Coast.

In addition to addressing the population’s “huge need for food and water,” he said Operation Blessing seeks to provide “a reminder that somebody’s there to walk through this journey with them, to pray with them, put their arm around them, help them begin to rebuild and get back on their feet.”

The Rev. Franklin Graham, CEO of the North Carolina-based Evangelical humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, stated Sunday that the organization has staff and volunteers on the ground in response to Hurricane Isaias. He shared photos of storm damage showing trees that fell on houses and cars.

“We have @SamaritansPurse staff on the ground in response to Hurricane Isaias, and volunteers will begin working tomorrow to help residents in the areas around Pensacola, Florida, and Brewton, Alabama,” he wrote. “They will be cutting up downed trees, tarping roofs, and removing debris for homeowners who were hard hit by the storm.”

In a statement Monday, Samaritan’s Purse said a “tractor trailer filled with tools and equipment” was already in Florida and another was scheduled to arrive in Alabama later that day. Its partner churches are Immanuel Baptist Church in Pace, Florida, and First Baptist Church in Brewton, Alabama.

Samaritan’s Purse is also deploying members of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) Rapid Response Team to “share the hope of the Gospel with families reeling from the storm.”

Joni Byker, director of North American Disaster Relief for Samaritan’s Purse, told CP the storm left “an astounding amount of trees that have been blown all over the place on homes, on vehicles." Many people were trapped in their homes because their driveways and roads have been completely cut off, she said. 

“As you drive through those roads, there’s still so much work to be done by power companies as well to try and restore power," she said. 

“It’s hard because not only is power needed, but then everyone is trying to help on their own properties. And so stores are not open, and so it’s hard to get supplies as well for the local residents."

Samaritan’s Purse had received nearly 800 work orders as of Tuesday morning, and Byker said there is also a great need for volunteers to come and help "serve people in the name of Jesus.”

“We want to come with the hope of the Gospel, let them know that they’re seen, let them know that God sees them and He has not forgotten them and that we’re here to help them,” she said.

BGEA Rapid Response Team chaplains are directed to spend “additional time with each homeowner and members of the community that need a listening ear, that need to be encouraged," Byker said. She considers it “the most important work” to “spend time with that homeowner, to listen to their experience and their story, encourage them, pray with them.”

“While we’ve got a team working at that home to clean up those trees […] if we see a homeowner sitting by themselves, we want someone, one of our volunteers, to prioritize that homeowner and go and spend time with them over the work that has to be done because the work will get done,” she said. “We often find that people are going through a storm in life before the actual hurricane has hit. And so you add the damage of a hurricane, and it just becomes really overwhelming really quickly.”

Byker told CP about one woman who lives with her two adult daughters and her elderly mother. The family “had three really large trees come down in their yard and crush both of their vehicles, crush their waterline, and they still have no power.”

“When our team showed up and said, ‘We can help you, and we can bring people to come and get these trees out of the way and do so safely so that you can get back to work,’ this homeowner just wept in relief," Byker recalled.

Convoy of Hope has also deployed to the Gulf Coast. In a statement Monday, the organization said Isaias turned parts of the Florida Panhandle into “a region of destruction.”

“Mobile homes were ripped apart. Trees fell, damaging roofs and blocking travel. Tornadoes popped up, bringing more damage. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, making it difficult to fulfill daily tasks,” the statement said. The organization said its relief efforts center on three items: “Relief kits, shelf-stable food, and bottled water.”

Convoy of Hope spokesperson Ethan Forhetz told CP the organization is based at a church in Pace, Florida, and is working in 11 nearby communities. Convoy of Hope is providing clean drinking water, “boxes of food that will take care of a family for an entire week," “tarps for their roofs,” “baby supplies” and “hygiene items," he said. 

“As of yesterday, it’s been more than 350,000 pounds of relief," Forhetz stressed. "That is numerous semi-truckloads worth of supplies to more than 20,000 people at this point. And we’re having large distributions every day,” he said.

Forhetz stressed that survivors’ spiritual needs matter as much as their material ones.

“Ultimately, what they need and what we’re giving is hope," he said. "We’re giving them hope that tomorrow is going to be better than today. They need to know that other parts of the country see their plight, their neighbors in the United States see what they’re going through and care what they’re going through, and most importantly, that there’s a God in Heaven who cares."