September 6, 2005

Hurricane Relief Update

SUPPORTING EVACUEES IN SHELTERS ENCOURAGED

District offices and disaster relief workers are receiving inquiries about hosting Hurricane Katrina evacuees in private homes. Presently, the organizations working with the Indiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (INVOAD), encourages Hoosiers to support the needs of public shelters rather than hosting individuals in private homes. If you wish to assist with housing, contact one of the following organizations:

Your local chapter of the Red Cross and Salvation Army offices or to assist with housing in the Indianapolis area, call

• American Red Cross -- Greater Indianapolis -- 317-684-1441
• Salvation Army -- 317-937-7000 ext. 1017
• Hope International (Jean Hewitt) -- 317-955-0358

For INVOAD updates and relief efforts across the state, log on to www.hcrn.info. 

SOUTH INDIANA CONFERENCE SENDING FIRST WAVE OF VOLUNTEERS

The South Indiana Conference is asking districts to keep a list of people who are able to go immediately on (one-week) work teams to the South. Eight people are still needed for the team scheduled to leave Friday of this week for a United Methodist Church in Gulfport. Miss. where more than 2,000 evacuees are being fed daily . For more information, contact Elsie at the SIC Center at 800-919-8160. Church vans also are needed for trips. Please send the name, address, phone number, work number, cell phone number and e-mail address of each interested volunteer. More teams will be scheduled in the weeks ahead. Upon receipt of names, each district office will reply with an application that needs to be completed by the volunteers and submitted to the Conference Office. Volunteer in Mission application forms area available online at www.sicumc.org. 

TERRE HAUTE CHURCH PROVIDES OUTLET FOR KATRINA FRUSTRATION

Dave and Michael were supposed to be having an accountability lunch this past Thursday, but the frustration over having no way to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina was all they could talk about. They knew their congregation, Memorial United Methodist Church in Terre Haute, could easily provide needed water and food, but how would they get it there? The local Red Cross chapter was only collecting cash donations. Another frustrated individual was at the Red Cross office wanting to donate a truck to carry goods to those who need them. Out of frustration, a plan was born. The local public media were contacted, and Memorial UMC became the collection point. In less than 24 hours, residents of Terre Haute had inundated the church with donations of bottled water, granola bars and Pop Tarts, diapers and wipes and more than $2,400 in cash. The 24-ft truck, two pick-ups and a trailer were filled and drove south Friday evening, leaving behind for a second trip as much as they were taking in the first. "It's possible for each and every one to do one thing and it will all add up," said Shannon, an ISU student who supplied the truck. The Rev. Cyndi Alte, senior pastor at Memorial, was pleased with both the community's and her own congregation's responses. "It's all been a God thing," she said, from the chance meeting of Dave, Michael, and Shannon, to the outpouring of the community.

NOTE: Before collecting and supplies and heading South, contact your conference disaster response coordinator with your plans. If you don't have proper credentials and a predetermined destination with a request for supplies, you may be turned back. Your coordinators are: South Indiana Conference -- Bob Babcock at 317-745-7513. North Indiana Conference -- Charles Jones at 765-643-9613.

HOLD SUPPLIES UNTIL TRANSPORTATION IS ANNOUNCED

At this point in the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief, it is important to collect and hold relief supplies until roads are open. Presently, unauthorized shipments of goods will be turned away unless they are documented with the state and have a recipient to receive and distribute the goods. Fuel is very expensive (up to $6 a gallon in some places) and scarce in the disaster areas. In the South Indiana Conference, goods from the four designated collection sites will be picked up by the Midwest Mission Distribution Center from Illinois and taken south to a point of need.

MOST NEEDED ITEMS -- BOTTLED WATER AND HEALTH KITS

The most needed items continue to be bottled water and health kits. With an arrangement by INVOAD, a truck was scheduled to pick up 1,000 health kits at Saint Luke's United Methodist Church on Tuesday. Those health kits are headed south.

For daily updates of what is happening in the South with relief efforts, log on to www.umcor.org. 

For continuous news stories about relief efforts, log on to www.umns.org. 

Compiled by
Dan Gangler, director of communication
Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church

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