wfn.org | Church World Service Katrina Response Update Sept 2 2005

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Emergency Appeal Update: Hurricane Katrina Response
September 2, 2005

SITUATION:

Thousands of people remain stranded in New Orleans without basic 
necessities due to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The death toll in 
Louisiana is still uncertain, but officials fear the number could stretch 
into the thousands.

Eighty percent of the city is submerged in water -- muddy floodwaters as 
high as 20 ft., toxic with fuel, battery acid, rubbish and raw sewage -- as 
a result of three major breaches in the city's intricate levee system that 
keeps the below-sea-level city from flooding under normal conditions. 
Rescue crews put off counting bodies, to focus on saving the living.

More than a thousand U.S. National Guard troops have been dispatched to the 
area to quell violence and lawlessness, which includes looting, vandalism, 
and some reports of rape.

There are a reported 109,000 persons registered at Red Cross shelters in 
outlying areas of New Orleans. Some 30,000 displaced persons have been or 
are being bused from the New Orleans Superdome to the Houston Astrodome 
(9/1), and to Dallas, Huntsville, and San Antonio, and there are as many as 
20,000 stranded at the downtown New Orleans Convention Center.

In Mississippi, the death toll is nearing 200 and expected to climb as 
officials comb through ravaged homes and debris in the hard hit 
Gulfport/Biloxi area. The communities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland, home 
to about 20,000 people, suffered almost complete destruction, officials 
report. One million remain without power.

Alabama: Flooding reached 11 ft. in Mobile. Southwestern Alabama, south of 
Mobile, is also reported to have sustained significant damages. Assessments 
will reveal the extent of damage and need for assistance.

Georgia: Thirty homes were damaged by a tornado that touched down in 
Carroll County, a mostly rural, farming are 45 miles west of Atlanta.

CWS RESPONSE:

Following is a summary of the CWS response, including material aid 
shipments and deployments of CWS staff.

Shipments (to date):

    * 5,000 Church World Service "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits and 5,000 
CWS Blankets to Baton Rouge. Value of the shipment is $99,381 and was 
coordinated with Adventist Community Services.

    * 135 "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits and 100 CWS Blankets to Houston 
Interfaith Ministries, an ecumenical alliance of dozens of churches, to 
assist a United Methodist church in Victoria, Texas, housing 200 displaced 
persons.

    * 1,500 CWS Blankets to Terrebonne Readiness and Assistance Coalition 
(TRAC), a long-time CWS partner in southern Louisiana, for distribution at 
local shelters housing thousands of displaced persons. The shipment is 
valued at $7,500.

    * 20 medicine boxes donated by Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA) 
are being coordinated for shipment to Louisiana over the weekend. The boxes 
contain essential medicines and antibiotics for 20,000 persons for up to 
three months. Fifteen boxes will go to the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in 
Gonzales, LA, and five boxes will be used at the Baton Rouge River Center 
Shelter.

    * 540 CWS Gift of the Heart Health Kits, valued at $7,198, to the 
First Baptist Church, West Memphis, Arkansas, for use by disaster survivors 
there.

Deployments (To date):

CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough, together with CWS Emergency 
Response Program Associate Director Linda Reed-Brown are in Louisiana 
through Saturday (Sept. 3). They are conducting initial emergency needs 
assessment and are meeting with area faith leaders, including members of 
long-term recovery groups CWS has worked with in the past. (See below)

CWS Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons (DRRLs):

CWS DRRL Heriberto Martinez is currently on-site in southern Texas and will 
assist Houston Interfaith Ministries, which is providing relief for 
survivors at the Houston Astrodome.

Lura Cayton will be in Louisiana early next week to begin assessing 
outlying areas of New Orleans, working with leaders of recovery groups she 
assisted following Hurricanes Isidore and Lili. Cayton will be joined by 
other DRRLs.

Lesli Remaly will be in Mississippi to support the revival of previous 
recovery structures along the Gulf Shore and assist the coordination of 
long-term recovery structures in other areas of the state. Remaly will be 
joined by other DRRLs.

Tim Johnson is assessing flood and damage along the Coast, southwest of 
Mobile, Ala., and making contacts with leaders of the faith community 
through to the northwestern corner of the state.

Church World Service (CWS) Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons (DRRLs) 
are involved in daily briefings of Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA) personnel, state and local faith partners and Voluntary 
Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD).

The groups are identifying:

Material resource needs that CWS can address through "Gift of the Heart" 
Kits, Tools of Hope Blankets, and other assistance;

Areas where long-term recovery organizations will assist vulnerable 
populations with their unmet needs -- needs not met by government 
assistance programs. Based on previous disasters affecting comparable 
geographic regions and knowledge of the existing capacity, CWS estimates as 
many as 20 recovery organizations may be organized and resourced to carry 
out long-term recovery in Louisiana, Mississippi, northwest Alabama, 
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida.

Church World Service anticipates early identification of vulnerable 
populations and DRRLs will be working closely with church leadership to 
serve their neighborhoods. Vulnerable populations are individuals and 
families that lost their homes and livelihoods, who lack financial 
resources for recovery. This includes families with young children, elderly 
and culturally diverse populations.

A First-Hand View from CWS Director John McCullough:

Church World Service Executive Director John McCullough, meeting with 
Louisiana religious leaders and others in Baton Rouge on Thursday (Sept. 
1), said cooperation among different faith groups must be an imperative in 
the response to Hurricane Katrina.

During a meeting convened by the Louisiana Interchurch Council here, Rev. 
McCullough stressed that cooperation and not competition among faith groups 
will help consolidate their role as advocates for survivors coping with an 
unimaginable disaster in destruction and scope--affecting not just New 
Orleans but rural Louisiana and Mississippi.

This is not just an urban story; its a rural story, said McCullough during 
a meeting that was attended by members and pastors of independent churches 
in Louisiana, as well as representatives of the Presbyterian Church (USA); 
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR); the Christian Church 
(Disciples); and CWS staff that included Linda Reed Brown, CWSs Associate 
Director for Domestic Emergency Response.

Long-term recovery efforts are going to be key in the response, McCullough 
said after a day that concluded with meetings with disaster survivors in 
Houma, La., site of long-time CWS partner Terrebonne Readiness and 
Assistance Coalition (TRAC), a long-time CWS partner in southern Louisiana.

People are homeless and will have to start new lives, and the faith 
community has to be a partner with them, McCullough said.

EMERGENCY APPEAL:

CWS has issued its initial appeal (#6280 - Hurricane Katrina Response) to 
support shipments of "Gifts of the Heart" Kits and other material aid as 
required, support of long-term recovery organizing work of CWS-DRRLs and 
provide seed grants and financial support on behalf of the larger faith 
community to long-term recovery organizations.

Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to your denomination or 
directly to:

Church World Service
Hurricane Katrina Response -- #6280
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Contributions may also be made by credit card by calling: (800) 297-1516, 
ext. 222, or by making a secure gift online .

For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is 
responding please visit us online or call the CWS Hotline, 800-297-1516.

Media Contacts:
Ann Walle, CWS/New York, 212-870-2654; awalle@churchworldservice.org