Newsline: Brethren affected by flooding in Pennsylvania

[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 affected by flooding in Pennsylvania

(Sept. 14, 2011) Elgin, IL - Brethren Disaster Ministries staff have been in 
communication with Church of the Brethren districts and congregations in 
Pennsylvania, following the flooding caused by Hurricane Irene and Tropical 
Storm Lee. The BDM office is urging individuals who are affected to apply for 
FEMA assistance in the Pennsylvania counties where they are eligible.

"We have been continuing to communicate and work with Southern Pennsylvania and 
Atlantic Northeast Districts," reported Zach Wolgemuth, associate director of 
Brethren Disaster Ministries. "A few churches are responding to local needs or 
are planning a response in the near future. In Atlantic Northeast, White Oak 
Church of the Brethren has already helped one of its members gut their home in 
Manheim, Pa., and in Pine Grove, Pa., the Schuylkill Church of the Brethren has 
assembled clean-up buckets for local use."

In Lebanon County, Annville Church of the Brethren put together a work day to 
help clean up flooding that happened in their church building. In York County, 
in Southern Pennsylvania District, the York Council of Churches put out a 
request for volunteers to help do clean-up work and York First Church of the 
Brethren is planning to respond.

Congregations are requested to note that a number of counties in the area 
received a FEMA IA (Individual Assistance) Declaration, which means that 
individuals and families affected by flooding there may apply for assistance 
from FEMA. 

Individuals in these counties who have sustained damage can apply for 
assistance through FEMA and should do so immediately, Brethren Disaster 
Ministries staff said. Volunteers helping with clean up can continue to do so, 
but before repairs are made to homes those persons living in the IA-declared 
counties should register with FEMA.

The FEMA IA (Individual Assistance) Declaration has been approved for the 
following counties: Adams, Bradford, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, 
Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Schuylkill, Snyder, 
Sullivan, Susquehanna, Union, Wyoming, and York Counties. 

Individuals applying for assistance should log on to 
www.fema.gov/assistance/index.shtm.

>In related news:

The Church of the Brethren's Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) has made a grant of 
$20,000 in response to a Church World Service appeal following the devastation 
caused by Hurricane Irene. The money will support the work of CWS in providing 
cleanup buckets, hygiene kits, baby kits, school kits, and blankets in 
communities affected by the disaster, and will support the work of CWS to 
assist communities in long-term recovery development. 

An EDF grant of $5,000 supports the work of Children's Disaster Services (CDS) 
volunteers serving in upstate New York following flooding caused by Hurricane 
Irene. Seven volunteers have been working in the Binghamton Shelter on the 
State University of New York campus, reports associate director Judy Bezon. 
"Word is that the shelter population will decline more slowly than usual, as 
one major low-cost housing area in an inner city neighborhood is almost 
destroyed, and a number of the residents are in the shelter," she said.

Staff of the Material Resource program, which warehouses and ships disaster 
relief materials out of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., have 
been busy with shipments in response to Hurricane Irene. Cleanup buckets, 
hygiene kits, school kits, and baby kits went to Waterbury, Vt., Manchester, 
N.H., Ludlow, Vt., Brattleboro, Vt., Greenville, N.C.,
Hillside, N.J., and Baltimore, Md. A total of 3,150 cleanup buckets were 
included in these shipments. The available supply in New Windsor is less than 
50 at this point, reported director Loretta Wolf in a staff newsletter today.

For more about the Church of the Brethren's disaster relief programs go to 
www.brethren.org.

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