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Note #8467 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04382
August 26, 2004

Door-to-door

In Punta Gorda church volunteers bring relief to hurricane victims

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - About 150 people showed up for worship in the parking lot of
First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda, FL, last Sunday.

	They outnumbered the previous week's attendance - just hours after
Hurricane Charley swept through and wrecked the small cities of Punta Gorda
and Port Charlotte - by 145.

	In fact, last Sunday was the first time First Church's pastor, Steve
Mock, actually saw some of his members since the storm. Most of thom are
still digging out from the brutal storm. Two weeks later, some are still
without power. Still without water. Still without much access to the outside
world.

	By last weekend volunteer pastoral care teams coordinated by Peace
River Presbytery had located more than half of Mock's flock, the majority of
whom reside in Punta Gorda Isles, the hardest hit section of Punta Gorda. On
Monday the volunteers made their last pass through the subdivision, locating
the last few people and gathering bits of information about where others
might be-back north for the summer or temporarily living with friends.

	Punta Gorda was so hard hit that First Church is virtually
demolished.

	"These (survivors) are exhausted," says Linda Moore of Faith
Presbyterian Church, in Cape Coral, FL, a few miles away from Punta Gorda.

	Moore spent five hours one day, with a church directory in hand, 
trying to find the houses where members of First Church live. "They're
shocked," she says. "You can see it on their faces. You see it in their eyes.
You can hear it in their conversations because they have difficulty putting
words together."

	It has been a long two weeks of rigorous recovery and repair work,
much of it spent in 100+ degree temperatures with no respite from Florida's
heat and humidity - and few working air conditioners.

	"For most of these folks, we were the first people who sought them
out, other than neighbors on the street. We were the first people who came
looking for them from the broader community, who just wanted to know, 'Are
you okay?'" says Moore. One man commented that he felt forgotten by the wider
world - nobody had come to look for him in the post-hurricane chaos.

	A hospital chaplain, the Rev. Helen Heffington, who is a parish
associate at Faith Presbyterian, hurriedly trained volunteers, who were
dispatched across Punta Gorda to find members of First Church. They carried
packets of information about grief and recovery. And they were instructed to
extend comfort, to assess safety, to pray and to listen to the stories told
by survivors of the storm.

	It was hard work.

	Simply finding a house in the maze-like subdivision isn't easy in the
best of circumstances. But nowadays, at least in Punta Gorda Isles and its
neighboring environs, the street signs are gone or bent. Some telephones
still aren't working. Trash is stacking up on the curbs - ruined furniture,
torn roofing, pulverized horticulture and general debris - in some places
clogging streets so that cars can barely pass.

	Damage to homes can only be described as random. "Some sections are
devastated. Roofs are off or partially off. Apartment complexes have their
insides thrown around. It's like a big monster just tore off a piece of the
roof and tossed it around," says Moore. But on the next street over the
damage may be significantly less, such as just a few shingles missing.

	Assessing damage has become almost an art form, Moore says. Moderate
damage can mean anything from lost shingles to a partially collapsed roof or
a couple of shattered windows or serious landscape damage - or all of the
above.

	"Even the houses that were pretty watertight are leaking," Moore
says, "Everybody's house is leaking."

	One volunteer reported driving up to a house whose exterior looked
fine. When he entered it, however, he found that the entire back wall was
missing and the adult children of the couple who lived there were slapping
together a temporary wall.

	Other elderly folks didn't have a way to the grocery or the pharmacy
- a need the volunteers quickly took care of.

	For Mock the news is better than he'd imagined. Most of  his
parishioners are OK. Those whose houses are unlivable have been temporarily
relocated. Conditions aren't great, but they aren't as bad as they could be.

	The session of First Church will meet soon for the first time since
the storm ended to begin considering how to recover and rebuild. Mock has not
been able to convene the session since the storm because he was simply not
able to reach all the members.

	For now, worship will be held in the nearby Burnt Store Presbyterian
Church, also in Punta Gorda. It sustained only minimal damage.

	Heffington says the presbytery is beginning to gear up for the second
stage of pastoral caregiving in the disaster's wake. That will include
pastoral care for caregivers as well as tending to the spiritual needs of
members. "We began tending to spiritual, pastoral needs right away," she
says, mentioning the volunteer visitors heading door to door to locate
churchgoers.

	After the shock wears off there will be a new batch of problems. "If
you're in a stressed marriage," says Heffington, "it's going to get much more
stressed. If you're out of a job, you may end up filing for bankruptcy. But
the church will be the last entity to leave the table."  The church's ongoing
ministry will continue after emergency and humanitarian groups are gone.

	"We're gonna be here for the long haul" Heffington says.

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