On Wednesday, September 24, the hams with the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, a program sponsored by the North American Missions Board, NA4MB, stood down after assisting with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The group had been helping providing backup communications options in areas that were isolated since August 31.

NAMB National Communications Coordinator Terry Jones, W4TL, said that in his opinion, "The thing that worked best in areas that did not have good Internet and cell phone coverage were Winlink Airmail on both the amateur and the MARS side. This medium worked flawlessly and Airmail messages were transmitted via HF radio when voice communications were not possible due to extremely poor propagation. EchoLink worked very well, as did D-STAR. We were able to communicate directly with units in Texas through the D-STAR Gateway via the KI4SBA repeater in Cumming, Georgia. Satellite Internet service also worked well for those that have this technology. What did not work well at all were voice communications from the affected area to NA4MB due to very poor HF propagation."

Jones thanked all who lent a hand in providing services through the group: "Thanks are in order to Stu Carter, Chief, Army MARS and Army MARS for supplying us two MARS teams deploying to Louisiana in the early days of Gustav (NAMB has a Memorandum of Understanding with Army MARS). Thanks also to Dennis Dura, K2DCD, ARRL's Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager and the Section Managers and Section Emergency Coordinators for Georgia, Louisiana and Texas for providing us with additional resources in their respective states during this event. A very special thanks to all communicators, no matter what role you provided during this activation. If it were not for you, the communicators on the ground, [what we do] would not be possible."

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief -- based in Alpharetta Georgia -- is a partnership ministry of the state Baptist conventions and the North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention. It has at its disposal approximately 1500 mobile units, including feeding, chainsaw, mud-out, command, communication, child care, shower, laundry, water purification, repair/rebuild and generators.