United Methodists begin Hurricane Ivan relief efforts Sept. 22, 2004 By United Methodist News Service*
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A UMNS photo by Meredyth Earnest Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster helps carry supplies into Perdido Bay (Fla.) United Methodist Church.
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Bishop
Larry M. Goodpaster helps carry donated materials into Perdido Bay
(Fla.) United Methodist Church following Hurricane Ivan. Goodpaster
leads the United Methodist Church's Alabama-West Florida Area. A UMNS
photo by Meredyth Earnest, Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference. Photo
number 04-xxxx. Accompanies UMNS story #430, 9/22/04. |
Alabama and the
Florida panhandle are in desperate need of work teams to assist in the
Hurricane Ivan cleanup, according to the area’s United Methodist bishop."We
are thankful for the calls and offers of assistances from other annual
(regional) conferences and churches," said Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster,
who is based in Montgomery, Ala. "Even beyond the damage that the
churches are suffering is the total devastation of an entire area of our
conference from Gulf Shores, Ala., to Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Entire
areas are simply wiped out." After
ravaging the Caribbean, Hurricane Ivan made landfall near Mobile, Ala.,
early on Sept. 16 and then pushed its high winds, heavy rains and
tornados northward. Ivan and its related storms have been blamed for
more than 50 deaths in the United States and 70 deaths in the Caribbean. Initial
damage assessments by the United Methodist Church’s Alabama-West
Florida Annual (regional) Conference and United Methodist Committee on
Relief indicate that work teams are needed immediately for cleanup in
Atmore and Brewton in Alabama and Pensacola, Perdido Bay, Perdido Key
and Gulf Breeze in Florida. Volunteer
teams are asked to contact the Alabama-West Florida Conference disaster
center in Mobile, Ala., which was to be operational Sept. 22. The Rev.
Clyde Pressley is the center’s coordinator. Volunteers can call, toll
free, (866) 340-1956 for work location assignments and housing
information. Work
teams are expected to be self-sustaining and to bring work materials
and tools, along with food, water, towels, bedding and personal hygiene
products. The housing locations will provide sleeping quarters and
bathroom and kitchen facilities. All
United Methodist churches in the Pensacola area sustained damage from
Hurricane Ivan, according to conference officials. Several dozen church
families lost everything, including their homes. Local
congregations are responding to relief needs in their communities by
serving meals, providing pastoral care and child care for hurricane
victims, and supporting relief workers and utility crews. A number of
churches are serving as Red Cross shelters.
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A UMNS photo by Meredyth Earnest Volunteers clean up Gonzalez (Fla.) United Methodist Church's fellowship hall.
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Volunteers
begin cleaning up Gonzalez (Fla.) United Methodist Church's fellowship
hall following Hurricane Ivan. A UMNS photo by Meredyth Earnest,
Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference. Photo number 04-xxxx.
Accompanies UMNS story #430, 9/22/04. |
"I am extremely proud
of how United Methodists are responding in the midst of crisis,"
Goodpaster said. "Even when, many times, they have damage to their own
homes and are living under extreme anxiety, they are offering themselves
to the community."A
119-member church in the Pensacola District, Elizabeth’s Chapel, has
fed 1,500 people a day. Gulf Breeze (Fla.) United Methodist Church, a
Red Cross shelter, is serving three hot meals a day to victims and
recovery personnel, and the Perdido Bay (Fla.) United Methodist Church
has provided a number of outreach ministries to the community while
operating under an emergency generator. The
United Methodist congregation in Excel, Ala., is feeding the community,
and the Atmore (Ala.) First United Methodist Church is distributing
food, water and other materials. UMCOR,
the denomination’s relief agency, has provided an initial grant to
Alabama-West Florida to help it dispense food, water and ice and begin
recovery efforts. Distribution centers for materials such as flood
buckets and cleanup kits have been established at Blue Lake United
Methodist Assembly in Andalusia, Ala., First United Methodist Church in
Pensacola and the Gulf Breeze church. Alabama-West
Florida also is networking with the Florida Conference to coordinate
resources. Updated information on the relief work will be posted at www.awfumc.org, the conference’s Web site. In
the Caribbean, UMCOR emergency field staff will assess damage from
Hurricane Ivan in Grenada and Jamaica as soon as commercial air traffic
resumes. In Cuba and the Bahamas, UMCOR has provided grants for relief
supplies, emergency shelter and building materials. Methodist
churches in St. George, St. Paul, Woburn and Grenville on the island of
Grenada received hurricane damage, and the church in Constantine was
destroyed, according to information from the Methodist Church in
Britain. Both the British church and Methodist Church in Ireland said
they would make a significant response for relief and reconstruction
efforts in the Caribbean. UMCOR
continues to need donations of flood buckets, used by volunteers to
clean up post-hurricane debris and water. Specifications are at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor online. Donations to fund United Methodist assistance for hurricane relief can be made by check, credit card or an online commitment. Gifts
to UMCOR Advance No. 982410, Hurricanes 2004, may be designated for
specific regions affected by this season’s hurricanes or simply to
"where most needed." Contributions can be placed in church offering
plates, mailed directly to UMCOR, 475 Riverside
Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115; or charged onto credit cards by
calling (800) 554-8583. Online donations can be made at MethodistRelief.org. Jeanne,
another tropical storm, has caused flooding and mudslides in Haiti,
resulting in more than 700 deaths as of Sept. 21. Most of the deaths
occurred in the coastal city of Gonaives. UMCOR expects to partner with
Action by Churches Together, the international alliance of humanitarian
aid organizations, to provide emergency food, tarpaulins and other
relief supplies in Haiti. *Meredyth
Earnest, director of communications for the Alabama-West Florida Annual
Conference, provided information for this report. News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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