Newsline: Brethren Disaster Ministries marks 5th anniversary of Katrina

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl

Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

BRETHREN DISASTER MINISTRIES MARKS 5th ANNIVERSARY

>OF KATRINA

(Aug. 30, 2010) Elgin, IL -- Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the

Louisiana coast on Aug. 29, 2005. Five years later, the Brethren 
Disaster

Ministries rebuilding project in St. Bernard Parish, La., is still 
working on

>rebuilding homes destroyed by Katrina.

It is the sixth Brethren Disaster Ministries-run project to rebuild 
homes

for families affected by the hurricane. Current project leaders are 
John

and Mary Mueller and Brethren Volunteer Service worker Steve

>Schellenberg.

Over the five years since the devastation of New Orleans and 
surrounding

Gulf coastline, volunteers working through Brethren Disaster 
Ministries

have given thousands of hours to rebuild hundreds of homes. The 
church's

Children's Disaster Services also has helped care for thousands of 
children

>affected by the disaster.

"We are accomplishing what is typical of most Brethren disaster sites:

helping families get back into their homes," said Mary Mueller in a

telephone interview. In St. Bernard Parish, Brethren Disaster 
Ministries is

representing the church at its best by "serving the people who would 
have

>fallen through the cracks," she added.

The Muellers have worked for more than three years in St. Bernard 
Parish,

an area of Lousiana just east of New Orleans. During that time they 
have

helped host and lead thousands of volunteers--and they have seen the

>community turn around.

It was a "ghost town"--in Mary Mueller's words--when they arrived in 
early

2007, a place where debris lined the side walks and strip malls were 
deserted.

Now the area is becoming revitalized, businesses have reopened, 
schools

>are being rebuilt.

"It's wonderful to see the comeback...it is a community transformed," 
she

said, remembering her emotional response one day when she saw someone

planting flowers in a front yard. "My heart just leaped," she said, 
because

it was a sign the community was moving beyond survival mode.

Brethren Disaster Ministries is partnering with the St. Bernard 
Project to

rebuild homes in the parish. In total the project has put 290 
families back

in their homes. And the Brethren have helped with the majority of 
those

>houses, Mueller reported.

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the hurricane, the St. Bernard

Project held a 50-hour rebuild to show how much can be done on a house

in that short period of time. The work for last week's Brethren 
Disaster

Ministries volunteers--14 Brethren from Virlina District, and two 
hospice

nurses who came along--included preparing a house for an influx of

volunteers taking part in the special project. The Virlina group also

worked on several other homes, installing flooring and exterior 
siding,

putting up drywall and storm shutters, repairing a leaky chimney and a

rotted out soffit--in fact, a "pretty typical week" according to 
Mueller.

Mueller encourages people to consider volunteering with Brethren

Disaster Ministries. "Whether they volunteer at this site or any 
other site,

it's a very good thing, and it is so encouraging for survivors," she 
said.

And then she added a helpful reminder to new disaster volunteers, 
perhaps

learned from years of serving Katrina survivors: "You never know when

you'll be on the receiving end of something like this."

Hurricane Katrina statistics as reported by Brethren Disaster 
Ministries:

-- Brethren Disaster Ministries volunteers have rebuilt homes in six

communities: Citronelle, Ala.; Lucedale, Miss.; McComb, Miss.,; Pearl

River, La.; East New Orleans, La.; and Chalmette and Arabi in St. 
Bernard

Parish, La. The program also contributed to a New Orleans Ecumenical

Build in cooperation with Church World Service and a number of other

>Christian organizations.

-- The ministry has served 454 families affected by the hurricane.

-- A total of 4,929 volunteers have worked at Katrina rebuilding, 
giving

38,691 work days or 309,528 work hours representing a value of donated

>labor of $6,453,659 (at $20.85 per hour).

Hurricane Katrina statistics as reported by Children's Disaster 
Services:

-- The program cared for children in the Gulf region directly 
affected by

the storm, in places that received families displaced by the 
hurricane, and

in New Orleans when displaced families began to return. The 12

communities where Katrina-related child support has been provided are

Los Angeles and San Bernardino, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; Pensacola and

Fort Walton Beach, Fla.; Lafayette, La.; Norfolk and Blackstone, Va.;

Kingwood, W.Va.; Mobile, Ala.; Gulf Port, Miss.; and the Welcome

>Home Center in New Orleans.

-- Children's Disaster Services has made a total of 4,856 child 
contacts

>related to Hurricane Katrina.

-- A total of 173 volunteers with the program have served 2,055 days

doing Katrina relief work, or 16,440 volunteer hours valued at 
$342,774

>in donated labor.

A short video clip about the fifth anniversary of Katrina is featured 
at  www.youtube.com/user/brethrendisastermin.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to

continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out

its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist

and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace

Churches. It celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some

124,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has

missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican 
Republic,

>Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

>Director of News Services

>Church of the Brethren

>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120

>800-323-8039 ext. 260

>cobnews@brethren.org