wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Moderator views Hurricane Charley aftermath

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Note #8476 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04407
September 17, 2004

Moderator views Hurricane Charley aftermath

Ufford-Chase says recovery process will be long-term

by Evan Silverstein

PUNTA GORDA, FL - Rick Ufford-Chase, wearing a baseball cap and jeans,
reflected a moment after helping install a yellow tarp on the side of a
battered trailer home.

With drill in hand, the moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) stepped carefully around mangled piles of wreckage
and debris to reach the street. At the River Haven Mobile Home Park here on a
sun-drenched, humid September morning was a vast vista of personal loss as
far as the eye could see.

The chaotic landscape of pulverized mobile homes and twisted metal was the
aftermath of Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm that ravaged southwest
Florida in mid-August like a crazed vandal who showed only random mercy.

The storm reached land on Aug. 13, eventually killing at least 27 people in
the region and leaving thousands homeless. When Charley struck it upended
trucks, twisted traffic lights, and lifted entire houses to the top of
neighbors' homes, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Two Presbyterian churches were wiped out in Peace River Presbytery by the
powerful storm, which tore off rooftops, hammered steeples, caused water
damage, and destroyed sanctuary windows at some churches. The homes of some
Presbyterian pastors and members sustained serious damage.

The widespread damage prompted Ufford-Chase to visit Peace River Presbytery,
Aug. 31-Sept. 3.

"I came because the people here are struggling to put their lives back
together," said Ufford-Chase, an elder at Southside Presbyterian Church in
Tucson, AZ. "I think it's the role of the church to be with them wherever we
can."

Even as another hurricane named Frances was churning toward the Sunshine
State, Ufford-Chase visited First Presbyterian Church in Punta Gorda to
survey the damage from Charley. The church was virtually demolished by the
storm, along with another site he visited, the Chapel by the Sea on Sanibel
Island in North Fort Myers.

Five other churches in Peace River reported minimal to moderate damage.
Ufford-Chase visited three of them: First Church in Port Charlotte, First
Church in Arcadia, and Burnt Store Presbyterian Church in Punta Gorda.

Ufford-Chase also held informal discussion-and-answer sessions at Church of
the Palms in Sarasota and First Church in Bonita Springs, both of which the
storm spared.

The moderator spent most of his time in Florida surveying damaged
Presbyterian churches, distributing food and water to migrant agricultural
workers and talking with pastors, church leaders and presbytery executives.

"It just makes me think about church," Ufford-Chase said. "What does church
mean in the midst of all of this? It certainly means response and caring for
those who have been most deeply hurt. But how can we take pieces of what we
learn from the crisis mode and turn them into who we are in the long term?"

At storm-damaged First Presbyterian Church in Port Charlotte, Ufford-Chase
challenged pastors whose churches were impacted to use moments of crisis like
these as a catalyst for moving their congregations and the denomination
forward in bold new ways.

"I think our church is potentially in a great deal of danger," Ufford-Chase
said. "We've been kind of comfortable for so long that most of us don't feel
as if we're in immediate danger. Therefore we're not willing to take big
risks and dream new, big dreams. I think it's going to take moments like this
across the church to help us figure out what that new thing looks like."

At First Church in Punta Gorda Ufford-Chase spoke with the Rev. Steve Mock,
the church's pastor, who said the community took a direct hit from Hurricane
Charley when the storm traveled up Charlotte Harbor and through Peace River
on a path directly over the church.

The two men discussed how the 170-member congregation responded following the
disaster and issues surrounding its membership in the aftermath. They spoke
about plans to rebuild the church, trauma suffered by members grappling with
the church's destruction and in some cases lost or damaged homes.

 Ufford-Chase and Mock expressed relief that no members were seriously
injured, especially after some could not immediately be accounted for
following the storm.

Traveling through Peace River Presbytery, Ufford-Chase saw mounds of trash
stacking up on the curbs>ruined furniture, torn roofing, and general debris.
He saw bent street signs or places where signs had once stood in many
neighborhoods and along primary roads, including Interstate 75. He saw long
lines for gasoline, a commodity in short supply since Charley.

Emergency officials pronounced Charley the worst to wallop in the state since
Hurricane Andrew tore through in 1992. Twenty-six deaths were directly linked
to Andrew, which caused $19.9 billion in damage.

Overall, Charley is blamed for killing 27 people in southwest Florida and
causing an estimated $7.4 billion in insured damage alone. State agriculture
officials put the loss to Florida's citrus crop at $150 million.

The storm also caused damage to Presbyterian property like never before.

"This is unprecedented in terms of a natural disaster's impact specifically
on the Presbyterian family - churches and pastors and congregations," said
the Rev. Jim Kirk, a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team member from
Naples, FL. "We had 11 pastors in the presbytery who were directly impacted
in significant ways."

At First Presbyterian Church in Arcadia, where the steeple was damaged in the
storm and a hole punched in a sanctuary window, Ufford-Chase toured a
storeroom filled with donated relief supplies. There were such items as
cereal, canned goods, milk, bottled water and diapers (an item in high-demand
following the storm).

With grocery stores closed following the hurricane, area residents flocked to
First Church and other congregations for help. For those unable to leave
their homes, members from First Church drove through Arcadia offering food,
water and other supplies.

Sandee Woods, a deacon at First Church of Arcadia, and her sister Tina
Zolkos, started delivering food, water and other relief items immediately
following the storm. In fact, the two sisters didn't wait around for
permission from the church's session. There was no time for that; people
needed help fast. The two stuffed as many items as possible into a church van
and hit the road.

"The first days when we would stop and open the doors, the people would
come," Woods said. "We would be in one spot for 25 minutes with numerous
families," handing them relief items. Ufford-Chase, touched by the sisters'
story of generosity in Charley's aftermath, recounted it during other stops
he made in southwest Florida.

The effort by First Church of Arcadia mirrored the leadership role assumed by
many local churches throughout the storm-riddled state.

"God keeps sending us more obstacles to overcome, and we're going to overcome
those obstacles through the strength that we have in our faith," said the
Rev. Ted Land, pastor of First Church of Arcadia. "What's been keeping this
community going is the faith-based community. This church is just one small
part of what's been going on with all the other churches."

Ufford-Chase, a 40-year-old border mission worker who speaks fluent Spanish,
helped distribute food, water and other emergency supplies to migrant
agricultural workers in an Arcadia trailer park badly damaged by the
disaster.

The moderator even drove the supply-packed church van himself through the
mostly Mexican community, personally carrying life-sustaining goods to mobile
home residents. He also talked with them in Spanish, learning about their
plight across the U.S.-Mexico border, their faith, and their memories of the
terrible storm.

"This is a moderator who likes to get his hands dirty," said the Rev. Robert
Rea, Peace River Presbytery's designated associate presbyter. "He has such a
wonderful spirit."

Rea's wife, Ardis, accompanied her husband and Ufford-Chase during the visit,
which she predicted would provide a much-needed lift to storm-weary
Presbyterians in the area.

"I think it will have a positive impact because it's different from when
moderators normally come after a crisis," Rea said. "They normally come in,
kind of survey things, and go back out the same day. He's coming to help work
and to actually see the people. It will give our people a chance to connect
with him and with the denomination."

During the meeting with pastors at First Church in Port Charlotte, where a
blue tarp covered the roof, Ufford-Chase listened as pastors described their
fears about what might be next, with Hurricane Frances, and how congregations
could be better prepared for major disasters in the future.

"It's a huge blow to have to think about dealing with this potentially a
second time," said Mock, pastor at First Church in Punta Gorda. "We're just
starting to get a little normality back into the area. The thought of Frances
sitting out there and possibly coming right over us is just almost too much
to bear."

Ufford-Chase also learned more about the faith community's response to
Charley, as well as the presbytery's relief effort. He was told that the
response needed would be long-term.

"The message I will take to the rest of the church is that there is hard work
to be done in rebuilding both the physical and the emotional and the
spiritual church and homes of people here," Ufford-Chase said. "And that we
need as a church to continue to take that seriously over the next couple of
years. It's not a one-week event. I've heard that message clearly, and it's
one of the things I came to learn."

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