(Indianapolis, Ind – DNS – Oct. 22, 2008) – The Gulf Coast was slowly beginning to recover from the devastation left by the one-two punch of hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago, when the region was pummeled again by another big storm last month. Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston, Texas, on Sept. 13 as a strong Category 2 storm, with sustained winds of 110 mph and hurricane force winds extending out 275 miles from its center.
Ike is blamed for at least 153 deaths, including about 50 in this country. Almost 200 people are still missing. Damage to the U.S. coastal areas from Ike is estimated at $27 billion. Just a few days before it struck Texas, Ike had grown into the largest, most powerful storm of the 2008 hurricane season. At one point, it had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph.
"We have a critical need for volunteers right now," said Carl Zerweck, director of the Office of Disciples Volunteering. "We have a need for people who can stay like they did after Katrina and Rita hit three years ago. The needs are every bit as great as they were then."
In Phase I of the Hurricane Recovery Initiative, the Office of Disciples Volunteering, a part of Disciples Home Missions, working with Week of Compassion, sent more than 750 work groups to the Gulf Coast region following hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The goal for Phase II of the initiative is to sign up 250 work groups to work on storm recovery projects between Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009. Now after Ike, the number of volunteer groups needed may have to be expanded, said Zerweck.
"There are a lot of people that just got affected by Ike, who have still not recovered from Rita. We’re not going to try to separate Phase II of the Hurricane Recovery Initiative from Ike, it’s all going to be one and the same," Zerweck said. There are at least 50 Disciples families that have urgent needs, including at least two who are living in homes with mold in them.
Of the 3,500 residences in Bridge City, Texas, which is in the Beaumont and Port Arthur area, 41 are uninhabitable. The Office of Disciples Volunteering currently has work stations in operation at Beaumont/Port Arthur and Lake Charles, La. Another one may be opened soon near Galveston.
The Disciples churches that sustained damage from Ike in Galveston are Central Christian Church and Second Christian Church, and First Christian Church in Orange, Texas, which was inundated with more than 16 inches of water. In addition, members of La Porte Community Christian Church in La Porte, Texas, Northwood Christian Church in Beaumont, First Christian Church in Texas City and First Christian Church in Lake Charles, La., were impacted by the storm.
"The situation is bad, to say the least. Everybody is trying to compare Ike to Katrina and Rita. In some parts of the area, it’s not as bad, and in other parts it’s way worse. Galveston is just real bad," said Zerweck, who was in the region for about 10 days. "We’ve got Disciples families now that are living in their homes because they have no other option, and they are living in homes where there is mold but they don’t have any choice. So they are at the top of our priority list as soon as we can get volunteers."
The Coastal Plains Area Disciples office recruited about a dozen churches in the area to feed about 100 to 130 people at Central Christian Church in Galveston for two weeks after the storm hit. They are planning to continue feeding people on the weekends through the end of October.
"We continue to tell folks that the best thing they can do is make a generous gift to Week of Compassion," said Herbert L. Lynskey, Coastal Plains Area minister.
"About 60 Disciples have lost everything or nearly everything. Almost every congregation has members that have lost something." A group of men from Disciples congregations in Wichita Falls, Texas recently spent four days helping to clean out debris from First Christian Church in Texas City.
"People who would give up a week of their lives… buy air plane tickets… drive over 1,000 miles to a hurricane devastated area, work in heat over 100 degrees on a roof for more than eight hours or in moldy and rotten conditions gutting a home, cook their own meals, take cold showers, and sleep on a church floor with 25 other people they don’t know for someone they have never seen before and will never see again are the best of the best," said Mike Lee, a member of Graceland Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Southaven, Miss.
The Office of Disciples Volunteering is also recruiting volunteers for the third annual Habitat for Humanity blitz build to construct two homes for Hurricane Rita victims. They need volunteers to sign up for one of two weeks, Nov. 2-14. To schedule a work week in the hurricane-affected area, call the Office of Disciples Volunteering at 888-346-2631 or 317-713-2666, or visit: http://www.discipleshomemissions.org/Volunteer/ODV.htm
By James Patterson
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