United Methodists continue hurricane aid in Alabama-West Florida

A UMNS photo by Meredyth Earnest An Alabama home stands in ruins in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.

Feb. 1, 2005

By Meredyth Earnest*

ATMORE, Ala. (UMNS) — United Methodist churches throughout the Alabama–West Florida Annual (regional) Conference are continuing to help their communities recover from Hurricane Ivan, four months after the storm.

In partnership with the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the conference expects to be involved in the long-term recovery process for at least two to three years.

The Rev. Tom Hazelwood, UMCOR’s U.S. disaster response coordinator, recently toured many of the areas in Alabama-West Florida that were most damaged Sept. 16 by Hurricane Ivan. Some of his stops included Pensacola, Fla.; Gulf Shores, Ala.; Mobile, Ala.; and Perdido Key, Ala.

During a Jan. 25 stop in Atmore, Hazelwood noted the vast difference in the landscape since his last visit to the conference, a week after the hurricane.

“A tremendous amount of work has been done already,” he said. “When I flew in, I noticed the significant number of blue tarps still on homes – each one indicating where a roof still needs to be replaced or repaired. Even with the many strides the conference has made, there is still a lot of work to be done.”

One church that has been particularly active in disaster recovery is Atmore First United Methodist Church. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Doug Newton, is a veteran of dozens of mission trips during his 49-year ministry and has a passion for helping those in need.

First Church has become a center for recovery efforts in Atmore and the surrounding area, according to Newton. “The word has gotten around — you can get help at the United Methodist church.”

A UMNS file photo by Meredyth Earnest Blue tarps give evidence of Hurricane Ivan�s impact on Alabama in fall 2004.

Not long after Ivan hit, the Atmore congregation received a blessing in the form of Alice Holmes, an 80-year-old member of Hedding United Methodist Church in Elmira, N.Y. When Ivan made landfall, Holmes took a Greyhound bus to Pensacola to help however she could. The extensive damage prevented the bus from entering Pensacola, so she ended up in Mobile. There she learned of the significant damage in Atmore and the lack of response, and decided that was where she would help.

After initially working at a Baptist church for a month, Mrs. Alice, as she is affectionately known at First Church, offered to help the United Methodists. She now coordinates all of the church’s recovery efforts out of her own office in the church.

Since her arrival more than three months ago, Mrs. Alice has been living in the church’s youth house. “She has come to live with us, quite literally, and she has been as faithful as any paid staff,” Newton said.

When Mrs. Alice decided the youth house could accommodate more than just her, she went to Newton with the idea of converting it into a dorm-like space for volunteer work teams. The church borrowed cots from the local armory and set them up for incoming teams. Since then, the church has hosted 60 teams, almost of all of which have stayed in the house. The church, with help from the volunteer teams, has worked on 179 homes and six churches.

“I want all pastors to know that they don’t have to be afraid to open up their churches to (work) teams and say, ‘Yes, we can take you,’” Newton said. “What they may not understand is that work teams have an ‘Alice Holmes mentality.’ When we tried to provide a bed for Mrs. Alice in our youth house she said, ‘Volunteers sleep on cots or on the floor.’ So, she convinced me that maybe these volunteers would sleep on cots and crowd into this little house.”

While much of the attention during disaster recovery is focused on cleanup, construction and debris removal, Hazelwood cautions those involved to not overlook the deeper problems survivors face.

“You have to remember the ministry part of all this, and check on people’s emotional and spiritual state of mind,” he pointed out. “Oftentimes, they can get frustrated because of what seem to be delays in insurance processing, (federal) assistance, and a lack of progress. We have to be aware of these issues and address them as we are able.”

Hazelwood assured the conference of UMCOR’s commitment to assist in the long recovery.

A UMNS photo by Meredyth Earnest The Rev. Clyde Pressley oversees the Disaster Recovery Center headquartered in Mobile, Ala.

The Rev. Clyde Pressley was recently named executive director of the conference’s disaster recovery center in Mobile. Pressley oversees everything from material distribution to case work management and placement of volunteer work teams.

The placement of teams is a time-consuming job for Pressley. The geographic area is large, and each community has different recovery needs that require different types of volunteer teams. He said the Holy Spirit helps guide his decisions.

Donations for UMCOR’s hurricane assistance should be designated to Advance No. 982410, “Hurricanes 2004.” Checks can be dropped in church collection plates or mailed directly to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. To donate by credit card, call (800) 554-8583, a toll-free number. Online, donors can go to www.MethodistRelief.org, where a secure server allows the donor to enter credit-card information.

*Earnest is communications director for the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference.

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

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