wfn.org | Church Brings Hurricane Relief

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3180 notes).

Note 3179 by UMNS on Sept. 19, 1996 at 16:11 Eastern (9720 characters).

SEARCH:   hurricane, relief, Fran, Hortense, storm, flood,
Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue                      465(10-32-71B){3179}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722          Sept. 19, 1996

Church works for recovery
in wake of hurricanes 

                 by United Methodist News Service*

     Aid and comfort were among the many commodities church
members and organizations began dispensing in several states and a
territory following Hurricanes Fran and Hortense, which struck the
U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico in early September. 
     Hurricane Fran toppled countless trees and dumped several
inches of rain on an already saturated North Carolina as the storm
churned its way northward after landfall at a beach near
Wilmington, N.C., Sept. 5. Hortense inundated Puerto Rico five
days later.
     Flooding accompanied or followed both storms.
     Fran, although quickly downgraded to a tropical storm, made
its presence felt as far north as Pennsylvania. 
     In Walnut Bottom, Pa., one of the state's hardest hit areas,
Trinity United Methodist Church, in the Central Pennsylvania
Conference, took the lead in fund raising to help the town's
victims. In spite of a flood-damaged fellowship hall and a
destroyed day-care playground, the congregation launched a fund
drive to raise $5,000 for relief of local flood victims.
     Hurricane Fran hit Walnut Bottom on Sept. 6, and a week later
heavy rains flooded the community again, just after clean up of
the worst of the preceding storm's damage had been completed.
     An elderly couple in an affluent area northwest of
Philadelphia drowned in their basement when it quickly filled with
water -- their deaths part of the four drownings in Pennsylvania
caused by Hurricane Fran. 
     In the same area, a United Methodist woman volunteered to
provide counseling to elementary school children, displaced until
Christmas as a result of flood damage to their facility.
     Among parts of the Washington Area flooded by heavy rains of
Hurricane Fran was the area of West Virginia where the Cacapon
River meets the Potomac. 
     When Bishop Felton E. May visited flood victims there, he
found Linda Shade who had fled her home with her disabled seven-
year-old son. Although 30-inches of muddy water had entered her
house, filled her stove with mud and swept away her son's wheel-
chair ramp; that all could be replaced. But flooding of the
Cacapon, a normally placid river in which Shade and her son had
been baptized last June, caused her to miss the membership class
at Calvary United Methodist Church in Great Cacapon, and that
upset her. The bishop put Shade's mind at ease by welcoming her
into church membership on the spot.
     Areas along the Potomac River and farther north and south had
been hard hit by flooding in January when unseasonable
temperatures brought melting of a record snowfall as well as rain
to the area. Shade's home had not been flooded in 11 years, but
for some people, things had just been restored after months of
heart-breaking work.
     Allegany Rebuilders, an interfaith group founded by United
Methodists and others to deal with an earlier flood, diverted a
team engaged in long-term rebuilding to make an emergency
response. 
     The Baltimore-Washington United Methodist Annual (regional)
Conference has channeled some of its general relief funds and
efforts through Allegany Rebuilders in the Maryland panhandle and
Tricounty Rebuilders, based in Martinsburg, W.Va.
     There, as in other areas affected by disasters earlier this
year and in 1995, psychological aspects of the event are of great
concern to relief workers, and programs to assist with pastoral
care are being planned.
     Such is the case in the Elkton area of Virginia, according to
the Rev. Jim Hundley, conference disaster response coordinator. He
said two-thirds of the 250 homes destroyed in the state were
located in Elkton, a community of less than 2,000 people.  The
conference had four volunteer teams working on clean up there the
weekend after the storm.
     Conference funds have been made available for the relief
work, and Bishop Joe E. Pennel asked churches to receive a special
offering to help with the effort on Sunday, Sept. 15.
     Bishop Marion M. Edwards of North Carolina Conference has
asked congregations for a special offering to help with relief and
recovery.
     Neuse River flooding continues to cause problems in eastern
North Carolina, adding to other problems caused by Hurricane Fran.
Damage estimates in that state -- including crops, timber,
livestock and public utilities as well as homes and other
buildings -- are expected to exceed $4 billion.
     While the power was out for 60 hours at the Raleigh, N.C.,
sewage treatment facility, 80 million gallons of raw sewage was
discharged into the river.
     Other towns and cities had the same problem, which is being
compounded with agricultural, petroleum and industrial run off.
Health departments in areas down river, such as Kinston and New
Bern, have been offering tetanus shots and warning people to
disinfect everything that has been touched by the water -- without
touching it themselves.
     Four or five United Methodist churches in the North Carolina
Conference lost steeples and have holes in their roofs, including
Richlands United Methodist Church where the parsonage also
sustained roof damage.
     A tree fell on the parsonage of Trenton United Methodist
Church -- and another tree landed on the pastor's car.
     All four North Carolina Conference campgrounds were damaged
by the hurricane.
     Hurricane Bertha damaged the end of Camp Don Lee's pier in
mid July, but Hurricane Fran totally destroyed the pier and
dropped trees on two of the cabins. Hurricane Bertha also had
felled many trees there and put one in the parsonage living room.
Fran followed up with more trees down, heavy shoreline erosion and
relocation of two sailboats to a marsh ashore.
     Twelve days after Hurricane Fran passed, Camp Kerr Lake north
of Raleigh on the N.C.-Virginia border was still under water and
had many trees down.
     Conference disaster response coordinator, the Rev. Jerry
Jackson, asked each pastor in the affected areas to organize
volunteer teams within their congregations to help members and
neighbors throughout their communities.
     Jackson estimates that it will be 400-500 days before the
conference begins to return to normal and all the churches will be
able to sustain themselves.
     Chain-saw work teams continue to have plenty to do, but
Jackson reminded potential volunteers from outside the area that
only self-sustainable groups, who bring their own food, shelter
and shower facilities, can be used in the area. Self-sustainable
work teams also are needed to do emergency repair -- board up
broken windows, nail tarps over roof holes or move salvageable
possessions to temporary housing.
     Others -- non-self-sustainable groups -- will be welcomed
when local conditions permit. Among those who already have offered
services are United Methodists from Georgia, Nebraska, western
North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Missouri and Virginia.
     United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has sent
emergency start-up grants for relief efforts to the North Carolina
Conference and the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico. The relief
agency, a part of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries,
is to funnel contributions to this work through  Advance Special
No. 982410-0, "Hurricanes '96." 
     The North Carolina Conference Hotline, (800) 454-7780, which
receives Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) calls from
victims as well as calls from volunteers, added three more lines
to accommodate the volume of calls. It received 98 calls on Sept.
16. Calls are referred to the appropriate agency or resource.
     Volunteers also may call the Volunteer Line (800) 918-3100.
To inquire about sending materials. Donors may call the UMCOR
Depot at (800) 814-8765 or UMCOR headquarters (800) 554-8583.
Updates on the relief effort are being posted on the UMCOR Hotline
(800) 841-1235.
     Additional conference disaster response offices are being
established in Raleigh and Wilmington to serve these hard-hit
areas. Arrangements are being made for a warehouse in Clinton,
N.C., midway between Raleigh and Wilmington. UMCOR is sending four
church and community workers to North Carolina to assist at these
sites. Volunteers will supplement the staff.
     The Methodist Home for Children and Family Services in
Raleigh is offering help to churches in North Carolina
establishing temporary child care in affected areas and assistance
preparing Sunday school teachers and children's workers to help
young people deal with their spiritual and emotional needs. The
conference agency is offering pastoral care to ministers.
     In Jacksonville, Va., Trinity United Methodist Church has
been housing the Red Cross relief facility and has been asked to
provide child care for flood victims at the National Guard Armory.
                               # # #

     * Information for this release was provided by communicators
W.L. (Bill) Norton of North Carolina Conference, Dean Snyder of
Central Pennsylvania Conference, Carolyn Simms of Eastern
Pennsylvania Conference, Michele Manigault of the Baltimore-
Washington Conference and Tom Berger of West Virginia Conference.
Wendy Whiteside, executive director for UMCOR program management,
also contributed information for this story.

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