wfn.org | Nashville Church Members Accounted for as CRWRC Responds to Storms Slashing U.S.

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> IMMEDIATE RELEASE

> Media contact Beth DeGraff, cell 616-648-7821

Disaster Response Services director Bill Adams, cell 616-560-2782

Nashville Church Members Accounted for as CRWRC Responds to Storms Slashing U.S.

May 7, 2010?Reverend Jerry Hoek of Faith Christian Reformed Church in 
Nashville, Tennessee, contacted the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee 
(CRWRC) early this week to let staff know that all of the church?s members are 
accounted for after a weekend of heavy rain deluged the southern U.S., and 
resulting floods killed 21 people in Tennessee alone.

"We are very thankful that to our knowledge, no one in our congregation has been 
seriously affected by the flooding, but the loss of life and the destruction of property 
involved has hit our city hard," Hoek said. CRWRC?s Disaster Response Services (DRS) 
is collaborating with Hoek?s congregation and with response coordinators for several 
other disasters from Mississippi to Maine.

The massive storm system that raked over Tennessee last weekend also spun off a 
tornado, and killed 10 more people in Mississippi and Kentucky. With scores of 
people still missing and area rivers receding, the death toll is expected to 
rise.

"CRWRC-DRS volunteer managers Rick and Bonnie Wiersma are overseeing responses in the eastern U.S. region," says CRWRC-DRS director Bill Adams. 
"Regional managers are juggling coordination of our activities related to the flooding on the East Coast last month, a monster tornado in the Yazoo City, Mississippi, area two weeks ago, and the current flooding in and around Nashville."

The agency has also received a request for needs assessments from Rhode Island 
and from the Disaster Recovery Committee in Somerset, New Jersey, (SADRC) where 
heavy flooding is wreaking havoc on local residents this month. CRWRC 
collaborated with SADRC after Hurricane Floyd in the same area in 1999.

SADRC representatives noted on Tuesday in an email that, "because of what we 
experienced eleven years ago working together, we are very interested in moving forward 
to arrange assessment teams from CRWRC to work in the Somerset area as quickly as 
possible."

Adams said that CRWRC-DRS is setting up volunteer work crews in each location 
to help with cleaning up, mucking out, and repairing victim?s homes and 
businesses. CRWRC-DRS will also assess needs for a possible reconstruction 
phase of these responses, coordinating each phase with state and federal 
agencies as well as local organizations and other national-level emergency 
relief groups.

Rev. Hoek at Faith CRC in Nashville states his small but sturdy congregation is ready to help. 
"Right now, most everything is still in the immediate recovery stage," Hoek says, "but soon, clean up and rebuilding will begin. We want to work as much as we can with our denomination in this effort."

CRWRC-DRS is appealing for financial support to respond to these disasters. 
Donations to ?Spring Storms 2010? can be given online at www.crwrc.org, or by 
phone call to 1-800-55-CRWRC. Checks made out to CRWRC, with
?Spring Storms 2010? written in the memo line can be mailed to CRWRC, 2850 
Kalamazoo Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI  49560-0600.

Members of the press wishing to arrange an interview with Bill Adams, call 
cell, 616-560-2782. For more information about CRWRC, call media contact Beth 
DeGraff at cell 616-648-7821.

For more information about these programs, visit www.crwrc.org or call 
1-800-55-CRWRC.

CRWRC is an agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America 
ministering in development,

relief, and justice education with people in need in 30 countries around the 
world since 1963.

> # # #

> -- Beth DeGraff
> CRWRC Media and Justice Contact
> 2850 Kalamazoo Avenue SE
> Grand Rapids, MI 49560-0600
> 1-800-55-CRWRC
> www.crwrc.org

Note that my email address has changed to bdegraff@crwrc.org.

CRWRC is a registered non-profit agency of the CRC-NA in both the U.S. and 
Canada.