wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 597-Preparations for Wilma are business as usual

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Preparations for Wilma are business as usual

Oct. 21, 2005

By Tita Parham*

ORLANDO, Fla. (UMNS)-United Methodist church leaders and members in
Florida are seriously preparing for Hurricane Wilma, but after
experiencing so many hurricanes in the past 14 months, many see it as
just one more storm.

The hurricane, which was lashing Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Oct. 21,
was projected to reach southwest Florida late on Oct. 23 or early on
Oct. 24.

Monroe County Emergency Management officials asked visitors and
non-residents in the Keys to evacuate and residents began leaving as
early as Oct. 20.

Speaking from his home in Marathon, Fla., the Rev. Steven Bruns said he
and his wife and three girls, ages 4, 2 and 4 months old, would be among
the evacuees.

Bruns is pastor of Marathon Community United Methodist Church, located
in the middle of the chain of islands that make up the Florida Keys and
part of the conference's South East District. He said most of the
church's members - about 118 - were also leaving. Hurricane Katrina and
everything that happened related to that storm helped people make up
their minds to go, he noted.

"When Rita came through we had people evacuate who wouldn't have
normally evacuated," he said, adding the strength of Wilma "has people
really shaken," mostly because of the storm surge it could cause.

Bruns has evacuated twice already - during Katrina and Rita. He stayed
during Hurricane Dennis.

The Rev. John Webb, pastor of Key West United Methodist Church, said on
Oct. 19 that he is "anticipating sticking around at this point in time."

He's just not all that worried. Forecasters are projecting the storm
will slow, so there's still several days to check on its movement. He
has also had experience weathering a storm. He stayed on the island
during Katrina and Rita, but did leave for Ivan.

"If it (Wilma) was a Category 5 and bearing down on us, it would be a
different story," he said, adding very few in his congregation are
leaving.

The Rev. David Harris, disaster response coordinator for the South West
District of the conference, said the level of concern all depends on an
individual's mindset, where they live and what they've already
experienced.

Harris is pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Arcadia, a town
that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Charley. He said there are still
hundreds of families in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency in Arcadia and DeSoto County.

He said most people were not too worried because the storm was projected
to weaken in the Gulf, but reports that Wilma had become the most
intense hurricane on record raised anxiety levels early Oct. 19. Some
members of his church have left the area.

He says he and his church have been through it all before. "It's old
hat," he said. "It's just a matter of being ready."

And they are getting ready. Harris and the district's five disaster
coordinators, each in charge of a county, have begun the routine -
notifying churches to begin their preparations, such as securing
property and checking on church members, checking in with the county
emergency management. He said it's the "general kinds of stuff you need
to do to get ready."

The rest of the conference is also on alert. Conference staff in
Lakeland are considering which tasks they'll do - driving trucks filled
with supplies to affected areas, staffing phones, assisting with
communication - to help with recovery as needed, and staff in the
Florida Conference Storm Recovery Center in Lakeland say they're ready.

*Parham is director of communications for the Florida Annual Conference
and editor of e-Review, the online newsletter of the conference.

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

********************

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

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