RESPONSE TO HURRICANE KATRINA

Well, Hurricane Katrina has mostly come and gone now. Just a few lingering clouds and rain soaking the southern coastal areas. Thankfully, the hurricane did not give New Orleans a direct hit but turned north east at the last moment, missing the heavily populated area and making landfall primarily in the Mississippi area. My wife's family in Biloxi and Mobile seemed to fare o.k. through the storm, although final damage assessments there and in Louisiana won't be taking place until today.

Just wanted to drop a short note to let everyone know what the UM Committee on Relief is doing for hurricane relief. Of great relief is the fact that UMCOR's facility in Baldwin, LA, that houses supplies for hurricane relief made it through the storm without significant damage and will be reopening tomorrow.

How You Can Help (From the UMCOR Website)

Give: Your generous gift to UMCOR Advance #982523, Hurricanes 2005 Global, will help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. You can give online at www.methodistrelief.org, at your church, over the phone at 1-800-554-8583, or by mailing a check directly to: UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068. Checks should be written to UMCOR with the Advance number and name written on the memo line of your check. If you would prefer that your funds to go to recovery in a specific region, please note that on your donation.

Send: Flood Buckets filled with cleaning supplies that people use to clean their homes after floods and hurricanes. For assembly and shipping instructions, call UMCOR Sager Brown at 1-800-814-8765 or visit the UMCOR website at umcor.org. You may also give a financial donation to to UMCOR's Material Resource Ministry, Advance #901440 to purchase cleaning supplies that the Depot staff and volunteers will use to assemble flood buckets.

Go: Volunteers will be needed to help in Hurricane Katrina recovery. To find out how you can help with hurricane cleanup, write Mission Volunteers at voluntrs@gbgm-umc.org for contact information for your United Methodist Volunteers in Mission jurisdictional and conference coordinators. They will provide details on creating and training a team as well as scheduling details. For information on what disaster sites are currently scheduling volunteers, call the Volunteer Hotline at 800-918-3100.

Also, please don't forget to continue to pray for those affected by the storm. As rescuers are finally able to start getting into the affected areas, we may find a lot of damage and a lot of injuries and deaths associated with the storms. I believe that it was through our prayers that God lessened the severity of the storm prior to landfall and caused it to turn to the northeast and kept it away from New Orleans.