Puerto Rico ministry damaged by Tropical Storm Maria

Puerto Rico (MNN) ― Shortly after Hurricane Irene's visit to Puerto Rico, Tropical Storm Maria dropped in for an extended stay.

Don Ten Hoeve with Grace Ministries International says, "Tropical Storm Maria just kind of sat over the Ponce area and didn't ever reach hurricane strength, but it did cause more damage than hurricane Irene did. It tore off roofing over one of our walkways by our dining hall, and then that roof flew across and damaged a children's play area."

GMI has an active ministry presence in the south of the island. "The property we're talking about is a year-round youth camp and retreat ministry. We run camps and retreats during the summer and then retreats all year long, during the school year and on weekends. We also rent it out to other church groups."

GMI was spared damage from Irene, but heavy rainfall is complicating a few things. "Most of our property is under water," Ten Hoeve explains, adding, "That's kind of typical for this time of year, but it hasn't caused damage in our buildings yet."
Although power outages are scattered over the region, "It won't interrupt ministry. It'll just cause extra work for people who work in maintenance; it's probably a $5,000 project to repair."

September is usually the heaviest hurricane month in Puerto Rico. Ten Hoeve says, "The hurricane season has a long way to go. We're right in that hurricane alley that is a constant threat. Pray for protection. Pray for the staff that will have a heavier work load preparing for each upcoming storm."

Please pray that no more damage will be done to the camp property by tropical storms or hurricanes this season. Pray also that God will provide the funds to make the repairs.

11 Irene-Affected States to See Baptist Disaster Relief Units

Posted on Aug 30, 2011 | by Mickey Noah

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- In the wake of Hurricane Irene -- which has now claimed 40 lives -- Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) leaders and volunteers are mobilizing for an 11-state disaster response.

Coordinated by the North American Mission Board's disaster operations center in Alpharetta, Ga., Southern Baptists are deploying to respond in 11 states up and down the East Coast -- North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.

The American Red Cross has asked SBDR to generate the capacity to prepare and deliver 100,000 meals a day in North Carolina, 50,000 meals in Virginia, 15,000 meals in New England and 5,000 meals in New York.

Deployments include:

-- In the Tar Heel State, feeding kitchens from state conventions in North Carolina, Mississippi and Florida have deployed to provide meals for victims, responders and volunteers.

-- In hard-hit New England, conventions from New England, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio will staff feeding units.

-- New York and Mississippi conventions will provide feeding units in New York state.

-- In Virginia, the Virginia Baptist Mission Board (VBMB) and Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV) conventions will handle all feeding in the state. VBMB and South Carolina are providing five shower and laundry units for Virginia.

Because Hurricane Irene turned out to be more of a rain event than a wind event, SBDR mud-out teams are in heavy demand to assist victims whose homes were flooded in some areas where as much as 14 inches of rainfall were recorded.

North Carolina has requested 10 chainsaw and 10 mud-out teams. Seven chainsaw teams -- four from Mississippi and three from Arkansas -- already are headed to North Carolina, with four more teams from the two states on standby. In all, North Carolina DR leaders have requested 20 recovery teams.

VBMB is providing three shower and laundry units in Lawrenceville and Warsaw, Va., while the Maryland/Delaware convention has asked for four chainsaw teams and two assessors to survey damage there.

Needs are still being assessed in New Jersey and Vermont, where massive flooding has caused entire towns to be stranded by overflowing creeks and rivers that washed out roads and bridges.

As if the SBDR response to Hurricane Irene wasn't challenging enough, work continues for the seventh week in Minot, N.D., where June floods ravaged that city of 40,000.

"We can't forget about the serious situation and the needs of flood victims in Minot," Caison noted. A full complement of mud-out, feeding and shower/laundry volunteers currently are working in Minot, where SBDR volunteers have worked 4,600 volunteer days to provide some 114,000 meals and complete 117 mud-out jobs.

But dozens of mud-out crews -- representing many state DR teams over the past six weeks -- have only been able to complete about a fourth of the total requests for mud-out by Minot homeowners. Caison said mud-out work in Minot must be completed before the end of September, when colder temperatures come to the North Dakota area.

SBDR assets encompass 82,000 trained volunteers, including chaplains, and some 1,550 mobile units for feeding, chainsaw, mud-out, command, communication, child care, shower, laundry, water purification, repair/rebuild and power generation. SBDR is one of the largest mobilizers of trained, credentialed disaster relief volunteers in the United States, including the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Southern Baptists and others who want to donate to disaster relief operations can contact their respective state conventions or, for NAMB's disaster relief fund, go to www.namb.net/disaster-relief-donations and hit the "donate" button. Other ways to donate are to call 1-866-407-NAMB (6262) or mail checks to NAMB, P.O. Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543. Donations can also be sent via texting "NAMBDR" to the number "40579." A one-time donation of $10 will be added to the caller's mobile phone bill or deducted from any prepaid balance.
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Mickey Noah writes for the North American Mission Board.

Catholic Charities Assisting in Wake of Irene

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 30, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) reports that its east coast agencies are assessing the damage created by Hurricane Irene and are fully prepared to assist families and individuals with shelter, food, and other immediate and long-term needs.

"In many ways, we were blessed -- Irene came with less intensity and impact than what we expected, but there are still thousands of people dealing with power outages, property damage, and personal loss," said Kim Burgo, Vice President of Disaster Operations for CCUSA.  "As the nation moves on from this hurricane, and the headlines cover the next story, we cannot forget about the people that have been affected.  Catholic Charities will be there to help."

Following its work with Katrina, Ike and numerous other hurricanes and natural disasters, Catholic Charities and its agencies represent an experienced resource, ready to serve all those impacted by Irene. 

On the heels of this year's numerous spring and summer disasters, dollar resources are strained.  Donations to assist people impacted by storms and flooding are needed.

To help disaster-stricken areas across the country, please visit the Catholic Charities USA Disaster Donation Page.

Catholic Charities USA's members provide help and create hope for more than 9 million people a year regardless of religious, social, or economic backgrounds. For almost 300 years, Catholic Charities agencies have worked to reduce poverty by providing a myriad of vital services in their communities, ranging from health care and job training to food and housing. In 2010, Catholic Charities USA celebrated its centennial anniversary.

Irene Crosses into Canada; Cleanup to Take Weeks

Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone as it was heading toward Canada on Sunday night, but it had already killed more than two dozen people across the United States, The Christian Postreports. Preliminary estimates have the storm costing insurers $1.5 billion to $3 billion, with total damages, including uninsured losses, around $5 billion to $7 billion. Philip Bediant, a professor of civil engineering at Rice University in Houston, said that the recovery effort would take days, and in some cases weeks, as flooding from Irene’s torrential rains was still a threat to electrical infrastructure. “It could have been a lot worse in terms of storm surge, could have been worse in terms of the actual wind speeds,” he said. “It did not strengthen like they originally thought.”

North Carolina Hurricane Recovery Sites Identified, Volunteers Ready

Less than 24 hours after Irene crashed ashore on North Carolina's coast, North Carolina Baptist Men (NCBM) staff and volunteers were already mapping out a plan of action, Baptist Press reports. Richard Brunson, NCBM executive director, said the hardest-hit areas in the state appear to be near Pamlico Sound, Carteret County and the Outer Banks. Trained NCBM assessors have been on the ground since Saturday night and early Sunday morning surveying the damage and helping identify the greatest needs. NCBM will set up feeding/recovery units at several local churches, and set up its state recovery unit at The Memorial Baptist Church in Greenville. Those units were slated to be ready for feeding by Monday. Brunson expects to feed about 5,000 meals per day at each of the sites. "It is too early at this point to know how long the feeding units will be needed," Brunson said. "We expect at least a week. How soon people are able to get power back to their homes will play a large part in determining that. However, we expect the recovery process to be much longer."

The real damage from Hurricane Irene revealed

USA (MNN) ― Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a Tropical Storm on Sunday with diminished winds and rain...a far cry from the storm that struck Puerto Rico days earlier.

Even as winds, rain, and surf pounded North Carolina and Virginia, faith-based groups mobilized to meet the immediate needs of storm survivors.

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee's Disaster Response Services Team moved personnel and vehicles into staging locations. Director Bill Adams warns that they're expecting the whiplash effect of the storm in the days ahead.

"Even though perhaps the water didn't rise in Manhattan the way they were fearful, and some of the areas were not hit as bad, the flooding inland--a lot of the rivers in New Jersey, I'm hearing it around Philadelphia, and certainly North Carolina--has been affected by the storm surge."

Massive damages are expected to result from flooding because the disaster struck densely-populated areas. As of Sunday afternoon, there were 14 dead, and more than six million affected by the storm's march along the East Coast.
Adams says their teams were already primed to go by mid-week, LAST week. "The first thing we do is to start readying our Rapid Response Teams. Those are folks with tool trailers we send in to help with the cleanup. Last week, we were already getting those teams ready. We also have Advance Crews--they're kind of like project managers to really give us guidance as to where the Rapid Response Teams should be going." Advance Crews left for the disaster region Sunday afternoon.

CRWRC wasn't the only faith-based group primed for fast response. Mark Lewis with the Crisis Response arm of theEvangelical Free Church of America's compassion ministry,TouchGlobal, says some of their churches got involved immediately. "They cancelled services and encouraged everyone to go out into the neighborhoods to help -- you know, friends helping friends, neighbors helping neighbors, and really being a witness for the Gospel at a really relational level."

The Kinetic Analysis Group estimates that insured damage from Irene will range between $2 billion and $3 billion, but total losses could be as high as $7 billion. The real trouble will come long-range, which is the CRWRC's strength, says Adams. "Our big role comes with long-term recovery. We have had Needs Assessment Teams down there that ging door-to-door to find the folks that are still hurting. They don't have insurance, so we send our Needs Assessment Teams in, probably six to eight weeks after a disaster. Then, our construction teams will follow."

While CRWRC teams will be working with area churches and volunteer teams, Adams admits that with the number of large-scale disasters to which their teams are committed, the ministry is stretched pretty thin. "Between finances and volunteers, we've had a great response. But the needs are going to be tremendous, and they're going to continue for years to come."

The investment of time, materials and manpower opens doors that may have been tightly closed to faith communities before. Adams explains,"We're the hands and the feet of Christ. That's our purpose in this world." As part of their team briefings, there is a constant restatement of that purpose. "We also remind them (volunteer teams): 'Always be prepared to give an answer,' because invariably people will ask you why you do what you do. That's the opportunity to share the Gospel."