08677
September 18, 2008

Assessment of Hurricane Ike damage in Texas begins

At least one new PDA ‘volunteer village’ to be created

by Shane Whisler
Synod of the Sun communications director

HOUSTON — Up to eight national response team members from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) are headed to Houston Thursday (Sept. 18) to start the formal assessment of damage and needs following Hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

Car underwater a few blocks from downtown Ocean Springs, Mississippi, during Hurricane Ike. Photo by the Rev. Karen Bullock, associate pastor Westminster Presbyterian Church in Gulfport, MS

PDA — the relief and development agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s General Assembly Council  is also launching a comprehensive six-week information campaign to highlight the ways congregations and individuals can help those affected by spring and summer storms from Iowa through the gulf coast and on into heavily-hit Caribbean nations such as Haiti and Cuba.

Presbyterians will have several venues for prayer, financial and hands-on support of people all along the vast swath of devastation. One or more new PDA Volunteer Villages will be established in Texas in addition to the six already established on the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

After a conference call Tuesday involving PDA staff and volunteers as well as synod and presbytery staffers in the affected regions, Synod of the Sun Executive Judy Fletcher said, “The four immediate actions we can take involve spiritual care, clean-up/hygiene/school kits, prayer and financial support.”

Cimarron Presbytery, one of the denomination’s smallest, released $2,000 from a hunger fund to help feed the survivors and evacuees of the recent hurricanes in its synod, according to Rev. Leah  Hrachovec, associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater, OK, and member of the synod’s executive committee.

Kids in Gulfport, Mississippi check out the surf and wind as Hurricane Ike heads towards Texas. Photo by the Rev. Karen Bullock, associate pastor Westminster Presbyterian Church in Gulfport, MS

Synod of the Sun will receive the money and distribute it to the Presbyteries of New Covenant and South Louisiana. Grace Presbytery will join Arkansas Presbytery’s  effort in raising “bucket bucks” from congregations this Sunday, according to Grace’s PDA contact person, Rev. Rick Carus.

Congregations are invited to send checks made to “Ferncliff Camp,” 1720 Ferncliff Rd, Little Rock, Ark. 72223, with a memo of “emergency clean-up kits.” Ferncliff became host of a disaster assistance and call center for the PC(USA) and Church World Service in 2005.

PDA staff member John Robinson will plan spiritual care team training events, to be held in Grace Presbytery, for pastors in early October. Those trained pastors would then be available to support the care-givers and pastors in the disaster recovery process.