wfn.org | Minnesota Floods

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (32
notes).

Note 32 by UMNS on April 22, 1997 at 15:35 Eastern (4716 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                            220(10-21-71B){32}
          New York (212) 870-3803                   April 22, 1997

Minnesota churches provide
assistance in flood areas

               by United Methodist News Service

     In Breckenridge, Minn., the United Methodist Church is the
distribution center for emergency food and supplies to flood
victims in the area.
     In Ada, emergency generators supplied by the United Methodist
Committee on Relief (UMCOR), helped keep the community going when
power lines went down.
     In Crookston, members at Wesley United Methodist Church have
been cooking around the clock, preparing meals for evacuees and
the National Guard.
     The Rev. Duane Gebhard, Northwest district superintendent for
the United Methodist Minnesota Annual (regional) Conference,
called the April flooding of a number of northwest communities a
major disaster. He has toured many of the affected areas and
maintained regular contact with local pastors.
     "These are all towns that have tributaries that lead toward
the Red River," he explained in an April 22 interview. It is the
Red River which has nearly destroyed Grand Forks, N.D., and
continues to threaten other towns.
     Ranging from south to north, the affected Minnesota towns
include Montevideo; Odessa; Ortonville, near Big Stone Lake and
the South Dakota border; Breckenridge; Moorhead, near Fargo, N.D.;
Ada; Crookston; and Warren, northeast of Grand Forks.
     In Warren, which had a serious flood last year, "all the
downtown area was under flood water" from the Snake 
River, according to Gebhard.
     But he added that residents were better prepared than the
previous year. Water receded from the streets by April 21 and the
next day, people were building more dikes to guard against any
recurrence.
     The United Methodist church there, which still had an
unrepaired basement from the previous flood, was kept dry by the
diligent efforts of its new pastor, the Rev. Bill Dimick. "He
literally built the dike all around the church and the parsonage,"
Gebhard said. 
     Close to 500 homes in Crookston were swamped when ice dams
broke the dikes. Yet later, when faced with 4,000 evacuees from
nearby East Grand Forks, residents took them in. "The amazing
thing is how the people there are rallying," he noted. "You would
never know they had just been through their own flood."
     Wesley United Methodist Church there has become the food
preparation center for the Salvation Army. Most of the kitchen
workers are congregation members.
     Gebhard himself carried 12 UMCOR-donated generators, 20 sump
pumps and other emergency equipment to the town of Ada, which
first suffered a late blizzard which disabled high voltage power
lines and then was flooded by the Wild Rice River.
     Temperatures dropped again and everything was frozen solid.
The cleanout was unique, as the frozen waters were scooped up.
"I've never seen flood waters carried out in dump trucks," he
said.
     Despite their problems, according to Gebhard, the town's
1,700 residents now feel fortunate compared to the plight of
citizens of Grand Forks. 
     However, damage in Minnesota has been significant. As of
April 21, 53 counties had been declared federal disaster areas and
the Minnesota Division of Emergency Management had estimated
12,000 people displaced from their homes.
     "Every town, you talk of two-, three-, four-hundred homes
sitting in flood waters," Gebhard said.
     Besides the financial and material damage, there is "serious
concern" about the mental health of flood victims in Minnesota and
North Dakota, according to Lloyd Rollins, UMCOR's assistant
general secretary.
     Problems stemming from harsh winter storms and spring
flooding could bring sharp increases in the rates of depression,
divorce, suicide, substance abuse and other stress, he said.
     During the last two months, UMCOR has conducted five pastoral
care workshops for about 100 ministers of various faiths and are
scheduling more.
     In Minnesota, an April 28 workshop has been scheduled at
Grace United Methodist Church in Fergus Falls for all clergy and
church leaders in the crisis area. It will be led by UMCOR
representatives, Bishop John Hopkins and Gebhard.
     Donations for flood relief in Minnesota and the Dakotas can
be given through local congregations to UMCOR Advance No. 901670-
1, earmarked "Upper Midwest Floods," or mailed to UMCOR at 475
Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115.
                               # # #

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