wfn.org | [UMNS] Bishops urge safety as Gulf Coast churches brace for

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Bishops urge safety as Gulf Coast churches brace for Rita

Sept. 22, 
2005 
ALL-RM {529}

NOTE: Photographs and related coverage are available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Report

By Linda Green*

Heed the warnings.

Three United Methodist bishops and the denomination s director of disaster 
response are sending that message to people in the projected path of 
Hurricane Rita, the monstrous storm expected to make landfall on the Texas 
coast Sept. 24.

We encourage people to evacuate areas where they have been asked to 
evacuate, the leaders said. Please do that early.

The message came from Bishop William Hutchinson of the Louisiana Area, 
Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, Mississippi Area, and Bishop Larry Goodpaster, 
Alabama-West Florida Area. The trio met Sept. 21 in Jackson, Miss., with 
the Rev. Tom Hazelwood, executive director of U.S. disaster response for 
the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

The destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall Aug. 29, 
and the problems surrounding the government s recovery effort compelled the 
bishops and Hazelwood to urge people in Houston, Galveston, Texas, and 
along the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana to get out of harm s way.

People need to heed the warnings to evacuate, Hazelwood said.

Or, as the Rev. Clay Whitaker, chairman of disaster response for the Texas 
Annual Conference, put it: Evacuate. Get Out.

In the past three days, officials in the Texas Annual Conference have 
encouraged pastors and laity to evacuate as the situation has unfolded and 
to care for their families and take safety.

Bishop Janice R. Huie said most of the coastal area of the annual 
conference is in the mandatory evacuation zone. To the best of my 
knowledge, all pastors and church members have evacuated, she said.

There is a high level of compliance with the evacuation orders, for which I 
am grateful, she added.

We ask for prayers during the next few days, Huie said. Wherever Hurricane 
Rita makes landfall, those of us who are United Methodists will work to 
bring relief and reconstruction to the areas.

Whitaker said disaster response organizations in Texas are preparing to let 
the storm do its thing and then begin to pick up the pieces. Those 
organizations will begin a daily conference call on Sept. 26 to organize 
their work.

As a sign of how serious denomination officials are taking the Hurricane 
Rita warnings, UMCOR closed its Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, La., Sept. 22.

The Rev. R. Randy Day, top executive of UMCOR s parent agency, the Board of 
Global Ministries, said the agency s directors and staff are with the 
people of East Texas, Louisiana, and other areas endangered by the 
approaching Hurricane Rita. & Let us all learn to be good neighbors to all 
who are frightened and in need.

Hurricane Rita, with its 175-mile-per-hour winds, has been classified as a 
Category 5 storm the most severe rating for a hurricane. Weather 
forecasters predict the storm will make landfall on the central Texas Gulf 
Coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi. They also say that a turn could 
hurt the already devastated city of New Orleans.

Having seen what Hurricane Katrina did three weeks earlier, people were not 
taking chances. Thousands of people in Louisiana and Texas were fleeing 
Sept. 21 and Sept. 22 by car, bus and plane, turning major highways into 
parking lots. Churches in Houston and Galveston that were sheltering 
Hurricane Katrina evacuees were moving those survivors to higher ground in 
the face of Rita.

We offer our prayers and support to those in the path of Hurricane Rita, 
the bishops said. The storm could impact an area that has been generous in 
helping us following Hurricane Katrina. We have been the recipients of a 
lot of support and resources from across the general church, and we know 
that will continue for the people in Houston.

While continuing to feed families displaced by Katrina, Memorial Drive 
United Methodist Church in Houston was preparing for Rita, said the Rev. 
Cynthia Harvey, pastor.

We do have contingency plans in place should Rita come near Houston, Harvey 
said, in e-mail messages to church members and friends. In the meantime, we 
ask you to prepare you and your family. Check in on your neighbors, 
especially the elderly and disabled, the single people and those with no 
family in the area.

There has never been a more important time to be the body of Christ than 
now, she wrote.

Louisiana gets ready again

The Rev. Doug Ezell, Lake Charles (La.) District superintendent, said, We 
have advised area United Methodist churches to be ready to use their vans 
and buses to take the elderly out of harm s way.

We encourage our church members, who are already exhausted and stressed 
from caring for evacuees for several weeks, to take care while driving if 
evacuation is necessary, he said.

Much of the Lake Charles District is under a mandatory evacuation due to 
the threat of Hurricane Rita, while a significant portion of the Acadiana 
District is under voluntary evacuation.

Meanwhile, Sager Brown announced it was closing. We will not be receiving 
or sending any truckloads into the depot until after Hurricane Rita has 
passed. We hope to have our disaster recovery materials available as soon 
as possible, said Gwen Redding, director of UMCOR Sager Brown.

The Louisiana Conference office, in an e-mail, requested that all Lake 
Charles and Acadiana District clergy contact their district office after 
Hurricane Rita passes to let the office know their location and contact 
information.

We have learned from Katrina that cell phones are not always the most 
reliable means of communication. Please give us a landline phone number if 
at all possible as well as e-mail and cell phone information, the 
conference stated.

Texas battens down

With Rita project to hit over the Sept. 24-25 weekend, Harvey said the 
Memorial church office would be closed Sept. 22 and 23 for battening down 
but that the church would serve lunch for evacuees Sept. 22.

Our main concern is for you and your family, Harvey said in her e-mail. 
Over the last three weeks, we have learned a great deal from our Katrina 
families. The greatest insight we have gleaned is the importance of 
community and of family. Many of these families (biological and 
self-formed) made it through the storm because they stuck together. So, 
stick together, she said.

Bishop Joel Martinez of San Antonio Area has been in contact with pastors 
and congregations in probable districts that could be affected by Rita. He 
said Victoria and Corpus Christi districts may be hardest hit, and people 
have been urged to evacuate.

The bishop expects 75 to 100 pastors to leave those areas. More than 50 
pastors have taken shelter in Austin, he said.

Numerous churches and institutions that have been assisting Katrina victims 
are ready to respond and receive people affected by Rita, he said. The 
conference is already housing 100 workers with the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency at Mt. Wesley Retreat Center, and Katrina evacuees are 
there too.

Travis Park United Methodist Church, San Antonio, is preparing for 
Hurricane Rita evacuees, according to Rolando Morales, operations manager 
for social justice programs at the church. Already a major relief center 
for Hurricane Katrina evacuees, the church, with assistance from FEMA, is a 
center for ID recovery.

We expect to fill the same niche with Rita evacuees, Morales said.

Advice for response

Through the Southwest Texas Conference s Office of Disaster Response, a 
checklist of actions before hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and other 
disasters threaten was sent to church leaders and members. Ground all 
actions in prayer for strength, calm and focus, the disaster preparation 
checklist said. We don t need panic. God will provide.

Bishops Hutchinson, Ward and Goodpaster offered advice based on their 
experience with evacuations. We also ask churches to set up contact points 
so that pastors and their congregations may check in with information about 
their personal safety and whereabouts if they have been displaced, they said.

UMCOR urged people to prepare for Hurricane Rita by having on hand a 
three-day supply of food and water, and extra batteries, said Linda Beher, 
communications director for the relief agency.

Congregations, she said, should plan to contact the most vulnerable the 
most vulnerable the elderly and sick in the congregation and have a list to 
touch base.

UMCOR officials said the agency would be ready to respond to Rita as soon 
as the storm hit. The Mississippi and Louisiana conferences are at a point 
in organizing their relief that UMCOR staff can shift to Texas as needed, 
Hazelwood said. Things are doing OK here, and much of the nurture that we 
have been providing will continue but will not require someone on the ground.

The relief agency will release information though e-mail and over its 
hotline, Beher said.

In a Sept. 22 statement, UMCOR noted that disasters of this scope will 
require years of recovery and investment.

Cash is the best gift right now, said the Rev. Kristin L. Sachen, head of 
UMCOR s Emergency Services Office. UMCOR does not accept clothing or food 
because they take up valuable space that is needed for critical emergency 
supplies. A list of most-needed supplies is available online at umcor.org.

Donations to support the United Methodist response to Hurricane Katrina can 
be made online at www.methodistrelief.org and by phone at (800) 554-8583. 
Checks can be written to UMCOR, designated for Hurricanes 2005 Global, 
Advance No. 982523, or the Hurricane Rita appeal, UMCOR Advance No. 901323, 
and left in church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, P.O. Box 
9068, New York, NY 10087-9068.

 # # #

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, 
Tenn. United Methodist communicators Betty Backstrom of Louisiana and Woody 
Woodrick of Mississippi contributed to this report.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.