Newsline: Brethren Disaster Ministries issues update on tornado, flood response

[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 issues update on tornado, flood response

(May 11, 2011) Elgin, IL -- Brethren Disaster Ministries (BDM) has issued a 
situation report on the severe storms in the South, and an update on its 
rebuilding work following last year's flooding in Tennessee. Children's 
Disaster Services (CDS) also is reporting from its work to care for children 
and families affected by the disasters (see story to come).

>Tornado response:

"As you can imagine, the BDM and CDS offices in New Windsor (Md.) are inundated 
with the severe tornado outbreak that roared across the South on April 27," 
reported BDM coordinator Jane Yount. "This outbreak is being called the worst 
in four decades. There are more than 200 confirmed deaths in Alabama alone, and 
the death toll across seven impacted states has climbed to 346 as search and 
rescue teams comb the impacted areas."

BDM staff continue to monitor the tornadoes that plowed through Raleigh, N.C., 
and 18 counties on April 16. On May 6, BDM associate director Zach Wolgemuth 
attended the North Carolina VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) 
meeting in Greenville. BDM will stay involved in long-term recovery planning in 
that state, and at some point will decide on an area in which to set up a 
rebuilding project.

Brethren volunteers from Virlina and Shenandoah Districts have begun work on 
minor repairs such as roofing, windows, and siding in response to the Pulaski 
County, Va., tornadoes that struck on April 8. "As the community establishes a 
long term recovery group, we may be asked to help with major repairs and 
rebuilding work," Yount reported.

>Tennessee flooding:

In Tennessee, this is the second May in a row for severe flooding. However, the 
Brethren Disaster Ministries rebuilding project site in Tennessee is in the 
Nashville area, which is not threatened by the current Mississippi Valley 
flooding.

"As the floodwater moves downriver, the levees protecting the communities 
around New Orleans are in danger of being breached. BDM is now in its last few 
weeks of Katrina recovery work" in the New Orleans area, Yount said. "We're 
certainly praying that these communities don't get inundated again."

A year ago, three days of heavy rain in May 2010 dropped up to 20 inches of 
water on Tennessee, causing severe flooding from Nashville to Memphis and 
completely submerging many homes. A BDM rebuilding project based in Ashland 
City, northwest of Nashville, was started on January 30. A second project is 
set to open in just a few weeks, on June 1, in the Brentwood area just south of 
Nashville. 

"Plans are well underway to host volunteer groups by the first full week in 
June at this new site," Yount said. Volunteer groups will be housed at Harvest 
Fields Baptist Church on Sams Creek Road in the town of Pegram, Tenn. 

The long-running Hurricane Katrina rebuilding project in Chalmette, La., will 
be completed by mid-June. BDM has moved its base from a volunteer house to Camp 
Hope in the community of Arabi. Plans are for the former volunteer house to be 
brought back to family living status.

How to help: "As always, the prayers of the Christian community for the victims 
and the responders are needed, welcome, and appreciated," Yount said. "It is 
most helpful to make financial contributions that can be used where they are 
most needed," she said. She emphasized that donations of clothing or other 
unrequested material goods are not helpful, and that unaffiliated volunteers 
are not encouraged in tornado zones due to safety issues. 

The work of Brethren Disaster Ministries and Children's Disaster Services is 
being supported by the Church of the Brethren's Emergency Disaster Fund 
(www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=give_emergency_disaster_fund). 
Church World Service is appealing for Emergency Clean-Up Buckets to assist both 
flooded and tornado-stricken homeowners 
(www.churchworldservice.org/kits_emergency). The buckets are warehoused and 
distributed by the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.

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 123,000 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