wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 271-UMCOR presence is 'sign of hope' in Midwest floods

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

UMCOR presence is 'sign of hope' in Midwest floods

Jun. 30, 2008    News media contact:   Marta  Aldrich * (615) 742-5133*   Nashville {271}

NOTE: Photographs and video are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>By Marta W. Aldrich*

NEW HARTFORD, Iowa (UMNS)-Marcia Young looked left, then right, at piles  of household debris as her minivan crept down Main Street in this small  farming community.

"You can smell flood," said Young, disaster relief coordinator in Iowa  for The United Methodist Church.

She was referring to the smell of dirty water, even though the sun was  shining on this day and the latest floodwaters had mostly drained away.  Left behind were piles of musty-smelling Sheetrock, insulation, couches,  refrigerators and sludge.

Sandra Kennedy-Owes, with the United Methodist Committee on Relief, sat  beside her in the passenger seat. As UMCOR's executive secretary for  U.S. disaster response, Kennedy-Owes was getting a firsthand look at her  agency's next big domestic project: helping the church's Iowa Annual  (regional) Conference assist storm-weary residents.

At the request of the conference, Kennedy-Owes arrived June 22,  following weeks of severe weather that began May 25 when a tornado  bounced through nearby Parkersburg and the New Hartford area. Heavy  rains and flooding followed, and more than 200 homes were impacted in  New Hartford, population 659. Across the state, 70 of Iowa's 99 counties  have been declared federal disaster areas due primarily to floods.

Kennedy-Owes and Young joined United Methodist Bishop Gregory Palmer in  a tour of the state's northeastern counties, where swollen rivers  spilled into neighborhoods and towns.

They visited First United Methodist Church on Water Street, where the  basement was still being mopped out, and spoke with the Rev. Betsy  Piette, whose own belongings were destroyed in both the tornado and the  flood. They walked along Saratoga Street with Barry Cuvelier, a church  member and school teacher, who told how more than 200 townspeople  cleaned up the local school-as well as the baseball field so that Little  League season could resume--even though most of the volunteers could  have stayed home to muck out their own houses.

"That's the beauty of small-town Iowa," Young said. "Everybody helps  everybody."

>UMCOR on the ground

UMCOR has provided two $10,000 emergency grants for mobilization, and  this week 1,500 flood buckets were to be distributed in Iowa to help  with cleanup. Long-term recovery work lies ahead.

"People on the staff of UMCOR have been available to us at every turn,"  Palmer said. He called UMCOR's presence a "sign of hope" in the Midwest.

"It is a huge symbolic reminder because UMCOR means something to a lot  of United Methodists that The United Methodist Church is here and will  be committed connectionally as well as in the annual conference across a  long span of time."

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has said the floods of 2008 will be remembered as  "one of the five worst natural disasters in U.S. history, given the  scope and magnitude of the devastation," including an estimated $3  billion in crop damage. Flooding from heavy spring rains also has  damaged parts of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska.

Kennedy-Owes emphasized that UMCOR is first and foremost a resource for  local response and long-term recovery. "We partner with the local  conference, and the conference takes the lead," she said.

Its resources include money, consultation, training and coordination  with the denomination's Volunteers in Mission program. The first VIM  teams were expected to arrive in Iowa this week.

"We also have a spiritual and emotional component, training pastors as  well as lay people to address those spiritual and emotional needs of  families impacted by disasters," Kennedy-Owes said.

The Rev. Mary Gaudreau, UMCOR's spiritual and emotional care consultant,  was to arrive in Iowa this week to tour damaged areas, consult with  conference leaders and plan a local training for late July.

>Local ownership

Young said it's important for the Iowa Conference and local churches to  take the lead in responding to flood damage. "UMCOR's philosophy is that  the conference and the town own the disaster, and they're here to help  the conference walk through that ownership," she said. "It's not UMCOR's  disaster; it's Iowa's disaster. ... UMCOR partners with us."

And while many volunteer organizations focus on helping in the rescue  and initial relief phase, UMCOR's focus is long-term recovery.

"After FEMA goes, after the insurance company goes, after the Red Cross  is gone and the Salvation Army and other voluntary organizations, The  United Methodist Church will be there to turn off the lights," Young  said.

For information about how to help, visit the Iowa Conference Web site at  www.iaumc.org/storms2008. To donate to UMCOR's relief efforts in the  Midwest, drop checks in church offering plates or mail them directly to  UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087. Write Advance #901670, Midwest  Flooding Relief, on the memo line. Credit-card donations can be made by  calling (800) 554-8583 or online at www.givetomission.org.

># # #

*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service.

News media contact: Marta Aldrich, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or  newsdesk@umcom.org. 
********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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