Brethren disaster staff prepare for aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Staff of the General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries are monitoring the progress of Hurricane Katrina, in anticipation of much work to do in the aftermath of the storm. Disaster Child Care volunteers are being put on alert, and the two active Brethren Disaster Response projects in Florida and Ohio are being shut down because of the storm. The category four hurricane, which passed over southern Florida Thursday, hit the gulf coast east of New Orleans this morning, and is expected to make its way north in the coming days.

"A lot of what's going on right now is the coordinating effort of responding organizations," said Emergency Response director Roy Winter, who was unable to fly to visit the Brethren project in Pensacola, Fla., this morning because the airport there is closed. His staff have been engaged in conference calls today to coordinate the Brethren involvement in the response effort. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross are setting up emergency centers, and Church World Service (CWS) has activated its response as well.

Disaster Child Care staff hope to get teams into the federal and Red Cross emergency centers. Child care volunteers are asked to contact their regional coordinators to indicate their availability; or to call the Emergency Response office at 800-451-4407.

The team of volunteers scheduled to work at the Pensacola project this week has been canceled because of the proximity to the hurricane, Winter said. Volunteers at the Ohio project are being relocated because of more flooding in the area anticipated from heavy rainfall as Katrina moves north.

He said the city of New Orleans was "fortunate" that the storm moved east, but expressed concerned about the situation in other areas in Mississippi. The movement east "may have been the saving grace for a lot of people" in New Orleans, he said.

Winter called on Brethren to help support a CWS appeal for help for the storm victims, through the General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund (1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120). "With 28 percent of New Orleans' residents living below poverty level, CWS is mobilizing to help the most vulnerable with long-term recovery," said CWS associate director for Domestic Emergency Response Linda Reed Brown, in a press release from the ecumenical agency. "While we'll have to wait for results of assessments, it's clear that even though New Orleans was spared the worst of storm surge catastrophes, there's no doubt that damage to homes and possessions will be major, throughout affected areas."

For further information about the CWS response to Hurricane Katrina, visit www.churchworldservice.org. For more information about Emergency Response/Service Ministries, see www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/.

Source: 8/29/2005 Newsline
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