wfn.org | Aid Rallied For Ice Storm Victims

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (546
notes).

Note 546 by UMNS on Jan. 14, 1998 at 17:07 Eastern (3642 characters).

CONTACT: Linda Bloom				19(10-21-71B){546}
		New York (212) 870-3803		Jan. 14, 1998

(Note: Mooers is correct)

United Methodists arrange
generators for frozen Northeast

				by United Methodist News Service

	United Methodists are among those arranging for generators to be shipped to
sections of upper New York State and New England affected by a paralyzing ice
storm.
	The devastating storm, which also hit part of Canada, began Jan. 7 and
brought down thousands of trees, telephone poles and utility lines, causing
widespread power failures that continued into the next week.
	As of Jan. 11, for example, 120,000 businesses and homes were without power
in New York, along with 229,000 in Maine, 41,000 in New Hampshire and 36,000
in Vermont, according to the New York Times.
	Henry "Hank" Coghill, disaster response coordinator for the United Methodist
Troy Conference -- which covers part of upstate New York and Vermont --
reported on Jan. 13 that many churches and residences remained without power.
	Coghill has been working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief
(UMCOR) to secure generators and kerosene heaters for the affected areas.
Generators also have been gathered from within the conference.
	One United Methodist layperson associated with Stewart's stores, a chain of
gas station-convenience stores in the area, helped arrange for generators to
be placed in company trucks and carried north as space was available, Coghill
said.
	Generators have been or are being sent to destinations around New York State,
to places such as the fire department in Mooers, a town six miles south of the
Canadian border; the United Methodist church in Wilmington, near Whiteface
Mountain; and the church in Champlain, also very close to the border.
	The ice storm has been toughest on the area's small dairy farmers, according
to Roger Ellis, a United Methodist and veterinarian from Granville, N.Y., who
serves as hunger coordinator for the Troy Conference Board of Global
Ministries.
	The loss of power to automated milking systems -- along with the lack of
power to pump milk into trucks -- affects the very livelihood of the dairy
farmers.
"The level they're being paid for their milk, they're always just on the
(financial) edge," explained Ellis, who devotes a large percentage of his
veterinary practice to dairy cattle.
	Ellis drove up to Mooers, 150 miles north of Granville, on Jan. 8, carrying a
generator for a fellow veterinarian who was in danger of losing vaccines. When
he walked into a dairy barn there, all 60 cows were bellowing.
"They're hungry, they're thirsty and their udders are so swollen they can't
put their legs together," he said, describing the scene in the barn.
	Since then, Ellis has worked through Coghill and UMCOR to help get generators
to the region. It will take an estimated four to six weeks for reliable power
to be restored to the area.
	He has heard rumors of cows not being milked for three days because of the
power loss and a lack of available generators. Such a situation, he explained,
can lead to a drying-out period, a prolonged decrease in milk production and
the risk of infection.
	"An average cow today would make between 18,000 and 20,000 pounds of milk (a
year)," Ellis said. That translates to 2,500 gallons annually. Even a 25
percent decrease -- about 5,000 pounds per cow -- would be a "tremendous"
loss, he added.
	Donations designated for the ice storm recovery can be made through UMCOR's
Domestic Disaster Response No. 901670-1 and sent to local churches or directly
to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115.
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