Newsline Special Report: Hurricane Katrina

THE BRETHREN SEND MATERIALS AND GRANT MONEY TO AID HURRICANE SURVIVORS.

The Church of the Brethren has begun responding to the needs of survivors of Hurricane Katrina with an initial grant from the General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) and a shipment of relief materials from the Brethren Service Center warehouses in New Windsor, Md. In addition, board staff Roy Winter, director of Emergency Response, and Helen Stonesifer, coordinator of Disaster Child Care, have been requested to participate in the coordination of mass care for all the survivors, working out of Washington, D.C., with the Red Cross.

On Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the northern Gulf Coast causing massive destruction in the city of New Orleans, and in other areas of Louisiana, and Mississippi. The storm also affected the Alabama coast and Florida panhandle, reported Emergency Response/Service Ministries (ER/SM). "The storm is tracking up into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys, where widespread flooding is expected," ER/SM said. According to press reports, death tolls may rise into the hundreds, and most of the half-million residents of New Orleans--which is being completely evacuated--will be unable to return home and need temporary shelter for weeks if not longer.

A shipment of relief materials left the Brethren Service Center last night, Aug. 30, bound for Baton Rouge, La. The shipment of 5,000 blankets and 5,040 Gift of the Heart Health Kits was prepared for Church World Service (CWS) by the staff of Service Ministries. It should arrive this afternoon, said Diane Gosnell, secretary for Emergency Response. Service Ministries also is preparing a shipment of 540 Health Kits for CWS to send to West Memphis, Ark.

The initial EDF grant of $15,000 responds to a CWS appeal for $300,000 for the disaster. The funds will support shipments of Gift of the Heart Kits, material aid, and the organization of longterm recovery. CWS anticipates that its response to Hurricane Katrina may be the largest US relief and recovery effort in its history, a press release today reported. CWS executive director John L. McCullough is travelling to Louisiana to personally assess emergency and longterm recovery needs and to meet with area faith leaders. "Church World Service is particularly concerned about the plight of what we anticipate to be a high percentage of poor people, the elderly, and other vulnerable populations," he said. "Stories of individuals who had to stay in their homes because they couldn't afford to evacuate personify that crisis." For more about the CWS response, see www.churchworldservice.org.

Church of the Brethren Disaster Child Care volunteers are standing by, and will likely work at shelters as well as in service centers. The child-care deployment is being organized and priorities are being set with the Red Cross, Winter said.

A call to remember those in Biloxi, Miss., who received Brethren aid to rebuild following a storm in the late 1990s came from Stan Noffsinger, general secretary of the General Board. He recalled in particular a grandmother named Miss Grace, who lived with three generations of her family in a home rebuilt by the Brethren. It was the first Brethren Disaster Response project after Noffsinger became director of the program in 1999. "I was so moved by the relationships that we built with the people in Biloxi, dear friends, dear souls," he said, remembering as well the hundreds of Brethren volunteers who gave hours of aid to Biloxi.

Miss Grace's home and others the Brethren helped to rebuild were located right behind the casinos that were destroyed along the coast line in Biloxi, Noffsinger said. The conflicting images of opulence and poverty highlight the problems that the country, and the church, face following this disaster, he said. "In light of the mighty winds, and the mighty waters, the opulence could not stand, but neither did Miss Grace's house. It makes you wonder what happened to the people we worked for, because they've lost everything. Where do they go now, and how do they recover?"

The Brethren who have been calling the Brethren Service Center with offers of rooms and hospitality for those displaced by the hurricane were thanked by Noffsinger, but he called for great care to be taken in responding to the crisis so that the church's response is appropriate. "I have confidence in our Emergency Response program, the Disaster Child Care program, and our participation in Church World Service," he said. "When we respond it will be appropriate, it will be humane, and it will be respectful of the lives that we care for."

In other Brethren news related to the hurricane, a prayer request was issued by Southeastern District for hurricane damage in Alabama. The church buildings of Fruitdale (Ala.) Church of the Brethren and Cedar Creek Church of the Brethren in Citronelle, Ala., were unharmed. A member of Cedar Creek lost her home, and the daughter of the Fruitdale pastor had a tree fall on one end of her mobile home. Steven Petcher, a team pastor at Cedar Creek, reported that many trees were blown over by the 60- to 90-mile-an-hour winds, but all church members are safe.

The district is collecting donations toward the disaster. "When you look at the whole picture it's just overwhelming," said district co-executive Martha Roudebush, expressing concern for all of those affected by the hurricane. "You can't find words" to share the feelings, she said.

Gift of the Heart Health Kits are needed for the relief effort, as well as Heart to Heart Kids Kits, and donations to the Emergency Disaster Fund to support Brethren efforts to help those in need. Information about kits is at www.churchworldservice.org/kits/index.html. Donations may be sent to the Emergency Disaster Fund, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120. For more about the Emergency Response/Service Ministries see www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/.

Source: 08/31/2005 Newsline
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