wfn.org | UMNS# 559-United Methodists assist hurricane evacuees at Camp Gruber

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United Methodists assist hurricane evacuees at Camp Gruber

Oct. 4, 2005

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

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

They came with their vans.

For most of September, United Methodists from both the Oklahoma Indian
Missionary Conference and Oklahoma Annual (regional) Conference assisted
Hurricane Katrina evacuees housed at Camp Gruber, a National Guard
training site.

They took the evacuees shopping in Muskogee, about 14 miles away;
arranged telephone calls; assisted with paperwork; and helped them move
to temporary housing or to be with relatives.

By the end of September, the work was nearly complete. Only about 75 of
nearly 1,600 evacuees who had arrived earlier in the month remained at
Camp Gruber, according to Phillis McCarty, disaster response coordinator
for the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.

Most of the remaining evacuees are people with special needs or
conditions, added the Rev. Anita Phillips, who played a lead role in
getting the volunteer services at Camp Gruber up and running. The trauma
experienced by the evacuees who remain, she said, "has compounded
everything in their lives. They need some individual care and casework."

Phillips, who has training in disaster recovery through the United
Methodist Committee on Relief, took charge of coordination for Community
Organizations Active in Disaster on the base. The volunteers also worked
with the Red Cross and state agencies.

Colleen Shaffer, former co-director of the Oklahoma Conference disaster
response program, provided assistance through that conference, according
to McCarty. "Our basic functions have been to coordinate volunteers and
coordinate transportation for the evacuees," she said.

Many of those who had fled the ravages of Hurricane Katrina came from
the New Orleans Superdome, looking for housing. "As they came through
Texas, they were turned away repeatedly," Phillips said, explaining that
other shelters were full. When the buses arrived at Camp Gruber over
Labor Day Weekend, the evacuees "were just so happy to be in Oklahoma
and in a safe place."

Some of the evacuees told Phillips that it was not the hurricane itself
but the chaos afterward that "destroyed their sense of security and
peace of mind."

Without the ecumenical effort of local churches, responding to the needs
at Camp Gruber would have been difficult, according to Phillips.

The Southern Baptists set up a chaplaincy network. A Pentecostal pastor
was in charge of assigning small projects to individual congregations.
The ministerial alliance of Muskogee, led by a Church of Christ pastor,
matched church sponsorship with those needing permanent housing at a
center established at First United Methodist Church in Muskogee.

United Methodists met a variety of needs on the base, from operating
computers to sorting out the mountains of donations to simply being a
friendly presence. The denomination's connectional system made such
organization possible.

"We tried to have our pastors (from both conferences) on base all hours
except for curfew," Phillips said. "We would direct them to go to the
places where there were the highest volumes of people ... to be that
compassionate listener."

Transportation services have been in constant demand. United Methodists
drive evacuees to the bus depot, the airport or wherever they need to
go. "When you drive up (to Camp Gruber), you'll see four or five United
Methodist vans standing by and ready," she pointed out.

McCarty estimated that United Methodists from around the state provided
about 90 percent of the vans used for transportation.

Of the evacuees who have departed Camp Gruber, she said, about a third
have returned to Louisiana to wait until they can get back into New
Orleans, another third have moved in with family members both inside and
outside Oklahoma, and the remainder are staying in the state, at least
temporarily. Some churches are adopting families "and getting them set
up with jobs and homes."

"It's been a wild ride," Phillips said about the experience of assisting
Hurricane Katrina evacuees. "I've seen the very, very best of what
churches and communities can do and how God's people respond to the hurt
and pain of others."

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org