Churches offer shelter, aid to evacuees fleeing Hurricane Ivan

Sept. 15, 2004

By Betty Backstrom*

A UMNS photo courtesy of Tom Hazelwood, UMCOR United Methodist volunteers unload a truck of food near Punta Gorda, Fla.

The Louisiana Conference Center, located in the middle of the state in Woodworth, received several hundred people Sept. 14-15 escaping the wrath of the category 4 storm.

"Our West Lodge is full, and the East Lodge is filling up. Once those spaces are gone, our plan is to open up meeting rooms to serve as a general shelter," said Annette McCreery, comptroller for the conference center. The center is the headquarters of the denomination’s Louisiana Annual (regional) Conference.

"People have arrived from New Orleans, Covington, Slidell and Mandeville," she said. "The drives have been hard and long for most. One phone message left on our machine at 1 this morning indicated the travelers had just spent 10 hours driving from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, a drive that usually only takes an hour or an hour and a half."

First United Methodist Church in Alexandria serves as an official Red Cross shelter in times of emergency. The Rev. Thomas Dunbar, senior pastor, said the church is rated as a shelter for 150 people and that a "full house" is expected.

A UMNS file photo courtesy of Tom Hazelwood Members of many Florida churches offered hurricane victims ice, water and hot meals.

"We hosted a Red Cross training earlier this year, where church members were officially prepared to volunteer during hurricane season. There are around 30 of us that are certified," Dunbar said.

One woman at First Church has opened her charge account at a local grocery with the instructions that the volunteers are to use it for anything and everything needed to provide meals.

"This church has a history of compassionate outreach to those in need," Dunbar said. "We provided this service three years ago during Hurricane Lilli, and will continue to help those looking for shelter in future emergencies."

Kenneth L. Schwab, president of Centenary College in Shreveport, announced that students from Dillard University in New Orleans were being evacuated to the campus in north Louisiana. Both schools are United Methodists institutions of higher learning.

A Sept. 14 statement from Schwab’s office said, "Due to the threat of Hurricane Ivan, Dillard will shut down at noon today. Many of its international students and others will board three leased buses and travel to our campus, where they will be housed until it is safe to return."

The bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 10 stretched hundreds of miles from New Orleans to Lake Charles, La. Special needs evacuees traveling westward found aid from United Methodists in Lake Charles.

The Rev. David DeWitt, a United Methodist chaplain for Memorial Hospital, said local churches had stepped up to house the families of patients that were being evacuated to Memorial from low-lying hospitals in the New Orleans area.

"First United Methodist in Lake Charles has opened its fellowship hall and is housing many of these families," he said. "Mattresses have been transported to the church from one of our conference campgrounds, and other area churches have provided bedding and linens for the shelter. Having a place to stay close to their sick family member was critical, since the closest hotel room available was almost to San Antonio, Texas," DeWitt said.

Fairview United Methodist Church, another Lake Charles congregation, offered parking areas and hookups for the recreational vehicles that many of the families had used during the long evacuation.

Throughout the Louisiana Annual Conference, United Methodist congregations are checking on their members who are most in need.

Sandra Brasseaux, secretary for Asbury United Methodist Church in Lafayette, said the congregation’s Nurture Team had been contacting close to 50 elderly and homebound members to check on their situation.

"We have around 15 team members who place the calls," Brasseaux said. "They try to find out whether or not these folks need food, someone to go over to pull in garbage cans, or just someone to reassure them that things will be all right. We ask the team members to report back to the church office so that we can be sure everyone’s needs have been met."

Tom Hazelwood, director of emergency services for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, said his agency is ready to respond in any area along the Gulf Coast that suffers damage from Hurricane Ivan. "The whole area is going to have flooding without a doubt," he added.

Hazelwood told United Methodist News Service that his focus, for now, is on the area from Mobile, Ala., through the panhandle of Florida, which was expected to bear the brunt of the hurricane.

"We’re sitting and watching, and we’ll be prepared to respond," he said. "We know that we’re in it for the long haul."

Relief efforts are continuing in Florida for victims of Hurricanes Charley and Frances, although Hazelwood said some of the work has been put on hold while Ivan is being tracked. Ivan already has caused deaths and major damage in Grenada, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Cuba.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is calling for volunteers, financial contributions and donations of flood buckets to assist in its hurricane relief work.

Volunteers wanting to assist Florida residents can call a toll-free hotline, (800) 282-8011, Ext. 149. Details on assembling five-gallon flood buckets can be found at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor, the agency’s Web site. Click on the "UMCOR Kits" link.

Donations for hurricane relief can be made to UMCOR Advance No. 982410, "Hurricanes 2004," and dropped into church collection plates or mailed directly to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. People donating by credit card can call (800) 554-8583.

*Backstrom is director of communications for the United Methodist Church’s Louisiana Annual Conference. Linda Bloom, news writer with United Methodist News Service, contributed to this report.

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

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