wfn.org | Presbyterians Join in Efforts to Help Tornado-Ravaged Oklahomans

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

7-May-1999 
99181 
 
    Presbyterians Join in Efforts to Help 
    Tornado-Ravaged Oklahomans 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
    OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Officials of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
have joined state and federal government agencies and other faith groups in 
trying to help the survivors of the brutal tornadoes that battered the 
state on May 3. 
 
    Disaster officials say more than 75 tornadoes killed 41 people, injured 
hundreds more and destroyed or heavily damaged about 10,000 homes in 
Oklahoma - perhaps as many as 3,000 in Oklahoma City, which was battered by 
a dozen twisters. Some of the storms packed winds of more than 250 miles 
per hour, and some scoured paths nearly a mile wide. 
 
    Fourteen Oklahomans were still listed as missing Friday (May 7). 
 
    Other storms early in the week killed five people in Kansas, four in 
Tennessee and one in Texas. An estimated 8,500 homes in Kansas were damaged 
or destroyed. 
 
    "The devastation is indescribable," Carolyn Stephens, executive of the 
Presbytery of Indian nations, told the Presbyterian News Service. 
 
    Early estimates put the extent of property damage at $1 billion. 
 
    Only one church in the presbytery was damaged, and that damage was 
slight. 
 
    The Rev. Pat Kennedy, of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team, who 
arrived in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, said: "I'm a native of Oklahoma and 
I have seen tornadoes before, in Oklahoma and in Indiana, when I was a 
pastor there in 1974. ... I've never seen anything like this damage." 
 
    Stephens and Kennedy were both involved in similar disaster-response 
efforts after the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal 
Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, which killed 168 people. At the time of 
the bombing, Stephens had just become executive presbyter. Kennedy was the 
presbytery's primary disaster-relief contact. 
 
    "This time we have more knowledge of the pain that we're going to have 
to endure," Stephens said. "In the first instance, we were naive; we didn't 
know what was going to happen. Now we know. 
 
    "This will be longer-lasting because of the property destruction. And 
many, many more people have been directly affected by this. In 1995, people 
at least had a home to go to at night." 
 
    Kennedy, who now lives in Amarillo, Texas, where he is pastor of St. 
Luke Presbyterian, said he has been "trying to stay focused on this 
(disaster) more than on what went on before. I have become aware of how 
much I've learned from the other experience." 
 
    Stephens said she and other church officials have been "pretty much 
involved in assessing the situation and in meeting with community and 
government agencies to learn what is being done and what will be done. 
 
    "We've been surveying all the churches in the presbytery to assess the 
scope of the pain," she said. Apparently there are 18 homeless Presbyterian 
families in the area. We're working with the pastors and churches where 
those members are; most are living with relatives. We already have been 
involved in the collection and distribution of needed items. Our plan now 
is to disseminate information, to tell people where to go for the help 
that's out there." 
 
    She said the presbytery also has "picked up the expense of things 
nobody else will pay," such as tombstones for the dead and air fares for 
survivors and their relatives. 
 
    Stephens was in the process of recruiting a disaster-assistance manager 
to take on some of what have been her responsibilities. "I can't be 
executive presbyter and disaster-assistance manager both," she said. "Right 
now I'm just a disaster-response manager." 
 
    She said spiritual and financial support from the national church is 
much appreciated. 
 
    "Communications with the larger church is of high importance to me," 
she said. "Quote me on that. My pride in being part of the Presbyterian 
church grows with every kind of tragedy that I've had to deal with. The 
national church has been very, very supportive. 
 
    "If you ever need someone to do a testimonial to the good done by the 
One Great Hour of Sharing offering, I'm the one to do it." 
 
    She said there has been "a high level of cooperative effort" among the 
government agencies, not-for-profit organizations and faith groups involved 
in the relief efforts, and Kennedy in particular "has been a great 
consolation as well as a great help." 
 
    The pastors of all the churches of the presbytery will come together 
for a meeting Monday, May 10. 
 
    In its initial response, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has rushed 
$10,000 apiece from the One Great Hour offering to the Presbytery of Indian 
Nations (Oklahoma) and the Presbytery of Southern Kansas. 
 
    Presbyterians are urged to pray for the affected people and 
communities, and also to prepare "Gift of the Heart" kits, which include 
such items as towels and washcloths, cleanup buckets and sponges, diapers 
and scissors. The church's stocks of the kits have been depleted by the 
response to the refugee crisis in Kosovo. For more information, call 
PresbyTel at 800-872-3283. 
 
    Financial gifts should be sent through normal channels marked for 
account #9-2000141-Midwest Tornadoes. 

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