As the aftermath of the hurricane has unfolded, it has become clear that PDA will be active on several fronts:

• Organizing — Supporting Presbyteries in organizing their own response and planning for long-term recovery. We already have a request from Mississippi Presbytery for $1 Million.
• Shelter — Training and supporting churches that have agreed to become short and long-term shelters for evacuees. Developing a protocol for matching evacuees with offers of housing is becoming an urgent concern, one shared by most of our ecumenical partners.
• Work Site Staging — Setting up, and initially running, staging sites for recovery operations with the support of Norwegian Church Aid. We are hoping to have the first site up and running within the next two weeks. PDA has agreed to allow the American Baptist Church to direct volunteer teams to our National Call Center to register and to use our worksite staging areas while in the area.
• Care to the Caregivers — Long term pastoral and spiritual care for pastors and church leaders, as well as training for those who will do spiritual care in the community, are developing in the presbyteries affected. We are expecting to plan retreats for pastors from the affected areas in October or November and follow up with Compassion Fatigue training similar to what we are doing in Florida for Hurricane Dennis survivors and the 2004 Hurricane affected areas.
• Organizing PDA to support all of these activities — In addition to the PDA National Call Center set up at Ferncliff, we have set up warehousing operations in Houston to support our work on the ground and collect our new Personal Health Kits and Hope-in-a-Box Kits for distribution to shelters.

Deployments:

Florida

The first landfall for Hurricane Katrina was in south Florida and the Keys. Mark White and Lawrence Willis were in the air almost immediately after the storm blew out into the Gulf of Mexico. They visited with the Presbytery of Tropical Florida staff and members of the Disaster Response Task Force. They also traveled with Rev. Tim Stover into the Keys to visit with churches affected by the storm. At least six churches in this Presbytery report significant structural damage, including Riviera Presbyterian Church.

Louisiana

Kristine Peterson has returned to Baton Rouge after being evacuated to Houston in the early days of the storm and its aftermath. She is working with the interfaith community in Louisiana and helping the Presbytery of South Louisiana set up a disaster response office with computer, a DSL network and access for pastors and PDA to use the internet.

George and Marian MacNeill are in Baton Rouge helping with communications and supporting the Presbytery in answering phones, brokering resources and problem solving.

Dee La Rue is by now also in Baton Rouge helping the Presbytery to set up a Disaster Response system including finance, volunteer management and general administration.

Dick Krajeski has arrived in Baton Rouge and begun to visit shelters and assess needs in the churches in the Baton Rouge area.

Bobb Barnes is in Baton Rouge to assist with spiritual care to pastors. Laurie Kraus will join him to begin doing debriefings and one on one support. They will assess the need for continuing and expanded support by week’s end.

Mississippi and Alabama

Bill Neely and Alonza Washington have completed their initial assessment visit to Mobile, Mississippi and a meeting with Mike Mann in Baton Rouge. They went through some of the worst coastal damage in the Mississippi and visited with survivors in Ocean Springs and Gautier (pronounced Go-shay). There are conflicting reports on the extent of the damage; but it is certain several churches have been destroyed and others were severely affected by flooding and have other structural damage.

Bev Cooper is on her way to Mobile to support the response of South Alabama Presbytery. Bev was just there this summer helping Volunteer Mobile get better organized to respond to last year’s Hurricane Ivan, so she is well versed in the situation there.

Al Thompson is on his way to Mississippi Presbytery to assist that Presbytery in getting organized to respond to the devastation all along the coast. First Presbyterian Church in Vicksburg is already sending chain saws, generators and supplies to Ocean Springs and other affected communities. The Presbytery is currently without an executive, so Al’s insights and support will be important.

Vern Farnum will be assisting in pastor support and debriefings in Mississippi Presbytery. Vern is Associate Pastor in the Westminster Church in Indianapolis with hospital chaplaincy experience and training in CISM. He has also done training for PDA with the New Hope Presbytery in NC and accompanied John Robinson on a trauma training event in Massachusetts.

An advance team for a work team leaves tomorrow for Gulfport to support Westminster Presbyterian Church in debris removal at the request of Samford Turner in South Alabama Presbytery.

Florida and Mississippi

Kelly Allen and co-opted member David Chesney are in Florida working with Churches and Florida Presbytery on assisting churches to be safe and effective shelters for displaced persons. They have also taken on the role in Mississippi of working with the Norwegian Church Aid team that will be arriving to help site and develop staging areas in Mississippi and Alabama for work teams coming in to do debris clearance and reconstruction. David is retired from the American Red Cross where he was responsible for training and has more than 25 years experience in disaster response and training.

West Virginia

Lydia Walker and Tom Jackson are responding to the State’s request for advice and consultation on the relocation of evacuees to West Virginia.

Arkansas

Dan Grimes has been deployed to Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center outside Little Rock, Arkansas to set up our national call center for this disaster. People who wish to volunteer can call 1-866-

Texas

PDA Advisory Committee members Tom Burleson (Chair) and Tracy Evans are being deployed to Houston, Texas where they will begin to assess needs for support of the mass evacuation of people from Louisiana into that area.

California