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[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

United Methodist leaders tour hard-hit Texas areas

>Sep. 16, 2008

NOTE: Photographs and related stories are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

>By Eleanor L. Colvin*

HOUSTON (UMNS)-United Methodist leaders in Texas feared the worst is yet
to be discovered as they began touring churches and communities battered
by Hurricane Ike and its 110-mph winds.

"The real question is, what is the damage in Galveston?" asked the Rev.
Don Waddleton, a district superintendent whose oversight includes the
barrier island community. "We cannot get in there to assess."

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, who leads the church's Texas Annual
(regional) Conference, traveled to areas south and east of Houston Sept.
15-16, but authorities blocked her group from reaching Galveston, a city
of 57,000 people with five United Methodist churches. Another 20 of the
denomination's churches dot nearby areas in and around Freeport, Texas
City, LaMarque and Baytown.

Ike was the worst storm to hit Texas in 25 years and killed at least 40
people in 10 states, including 11 in Texas.

Galveston was among the hardest hit. City government leaders have urged
residents to stay away from the coastal community, saying the city is
unsafe as a massive cleanup begins with no power and little clean
drinking water.

>Relief and recovery

Huie reflected on her tour of damage in a Sept. 16 message posted on her
conference's Web site
(http://www.txcumc.org/bishop_letter_detail.asp?TableName=oBishop_Weekl y
_Letter_EKVHVN
<http://www.txcumc.org/bishop_letter_detail.asp?TableName=oBishop_Weekl y
_Letter_EKVHVN&PKValue=10> &PKValue=10).

"While this hurricane was very bad in places, we are also grateful to
God for the limited loss of life," Huie wrote. "The eye of the hurricane
landed on our shores, and tropical-force winds extended all the way to
the northeast edge of the conference before exiting to the east.
Thousands of United Methodists in the Texas Annual Conference are in the
process of relief and recovery from Hurricane Ike."

Three days after the storm hit landfall on Sept. 13, more than 2 million
homes remain without electricity in Houston, the nation's fourth-largest
city. Damage was also significant in Beaumont, which lies 78 miles east
of Houston.

"One of the saddest sights is at Wesley United Methodist Church in
Beaumont where the winds peeled back the metal roof covering the Praise
and Family Life Center as though someone had opened a can of pork and
beans," Huie wrote.

The center housed recovery ministries for 2005's Hurricane Rita, in
addition to a childcare facility and fellowship hall.

"Children's artwork, their cots and teaching supplies are covered with
wet insulation and ceiling tiles," Huie wrote. "It is a mess. However,
given the indomitable spirit at Wesley, more than 20 volunteers worked
all day yesterday to clean up the water, move Rita Recovery to the choir
room, and begin putting their facility in order again. Rita Recovery
will be open again today."

A Sept. 15 tour of the southeast district, which covers the Rita-ravaged
"Golden Triangle" of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange, found at least
three United Methodist churches demolished-Bay Vue, Bolivar and Sabine
Pass.

Additionally, Ike ripped off roofs of at least a half dozen churches
across the conference's more than 700 churches. It also tore off the
roof of its east district office, which is housed 120 miles inland in
Lufkin. Flooding ranged from six inches to nearly six feet in churches
and parsonages.

Huie has requested a $10,000 emergency grant from the United Methodist
Committee on Relief. UMCOR representative Sandra Kennedy-Owes
accompanied the bishop on the second leg of her two-day assessment tour.

Despite the inability to pinpoint specific needs, the Texas conference
and UMCOR have mobilized to provide flood buckets, ice and other
resources in impacted areas. Three UMCOR distribution sites have been
established at United Methodist churches in Vidor, La Porte and League
City.

>Ahead of the storm

Before the storm hit, representatives of the conference's nine districts
loaded tools into trailers that will equip early-response teams to help
disaster survivors. Stocked with everything from ladders and axes to box
fans and flashlights, the trailers will support district emergency
response teams and will be housed at a local church within each of the
nine districts.

"These districts are prepared to respond to disasters within their own
district, within the conference and everywhere," said the Rev. Rick
Goodrich, assistant to the bishop, who mobilized the units on Sept. 16.

The Rev. Clay Whitaker, disaster response coordinator for the
conference, said providing the trailers and essential tools for recovery
zone work was a vital step in equipping Texas conference volunteers. The
conference has nearly 300 trained and certified early responders.

"We're trying to do better about getting (to disasters) quickly,"
Whitaker said. "We're great at getting there and staying the longest.
We're the best at staying the longest. We've not been the best at
getting there quickly, and this will help."

To aid Ike recovery work, send financial donations to UMCOR Advance No.
3019695, "Hurricanes 2008, Hurricane Ike." Mail checks to UMCOR, P.O.
Box 9068, New York, NY 10087, and write the Advance number and name on
the memo line of the check. Credit-card donations can be made online
<http://secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations/umcor/donate.cfm?code=3019695&id= 3
019695> .

*Colvin is the director of communications for the Texas Annual
Conference.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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