North Georgia Conference 

Missing Person Finder Website

International Red Cross Family Link

US State Department

Haiti Emergency: N GA Response

A major earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti causing widespread destruction. Millions of people are affected and thousands are feared dead. UMCOR is assessing the needs and preparing to respond. UMCOR asks for prayers for all who are affected by the disaster. Support for relief efforts can be made to Haiti Emergency.

1. Financial  UMCOR Advance # 418325 via this link or church offering plate or mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087
or
North Georgia Advance # 4183, Checks can be put in the church offering plate or mail to Treasurer's Office PO Box 102417, Atlanta, GA 30368-2471

One hundred percent of gifts made to this advance will go to help the people of Haiti.

 2. Health Kits   UMCOR Sager Brown has a urgent need for health kits to provide individuals with basic necessities. Instructions for assembling and shipping health kits are available at this link  Once health kits are assembled call 770-739-9537 for pickup and delivery to Austell Disaster Warehouse.

3. Volunteering for Haiti  There will be a great need for volunteers to help rebuild once the initial crisis has settled. At this time, it is not safe or possible for volunteers to go to Haiti. In order to frame a response that is consistent with the churches’ needs, people wishing to volunteer should contact the District Disaster Coordinator to determine when and how to appropriately respond.  Conference disaster training will be in March 28.

CDC Influenza A (N1H1, Swine Flu) Update 

During the week of August 16-22, 2009, a review of these key indicators found that influenza activity is either stable, or is increasing in some areas. Activity appears to be increasing in the Southeast based on influenza-like illness data reported by health care providers. Below is a summary of the most recent key indicators:

• H1N1 flu hospitalization rate in the United States by age group from April 15 to July 24, 2009. These estimates are based on the 4,738* hospitalizations that were reported to CDC during this time period.   The reported hospitalization rate per 100,000** people was highest among children in the 0 to 4 years of age group. The hospitalization rate of children in the 0 to 4 age group with novel H1N1 flu illness was 4.5 children per 100,000. The next highest reported hospitalization rate was in the 5 to 24 years of age group, which had a hospitalization rate of 2.1 per 100,000 people. The hospitalization rate for people in the 25 to 49 years of age group was lowest at 1.1 per 100,000 people. The hospitalization rate for people 50 to 64 years of age was 1.2 per 100,000 people, and the hospitalization rate for people 65 years and older was 1.7 per 100,000.

  While people 65 years and older are much less likely to become ill with novel H1N1 flu, the increase in the hospitalization rate for people in this age groups indicates that if they do become sick, their risk of hospitalization is increased. This is not surprising given that people 65 and older are generally considered at higher risk of serious flu-related complications, including those requiring hospitalization, from seasonal flu illness.

• Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) were highest in February during the 2008-09 flu season, but rose again in April 2009 after the new H1N1 virus emerged. Current visits to doctors for influenza-like illness are down from April, but are higher than what is expected in the summer and has increased over the last two weeks.
• Total influenza hospitalization rates for adults and children are similar to or lower than seasonal influenza hospitalization rates depending on age group.
• The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was low and within the bounds of what is expected in the summer.
• Most state health officials are reporting regional or sporadic influenza activity. Two states (Alaska and Georgia) and Puerto Rico are reporting widespread influenza activity at this time. Any reports of widespread influenza activity in August are very unusual.
• Almost all of the influenza viruses identified were the new 2009 H1N1 influenza A viruses. These 2009 H1N1 viruses remain similar to the viruses chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine and remain susceptible to antiviral drugs (oseltamivir and zanamivir) with rare exception.

For more information (swine flu)

USNS Comfort in Haiti Action

Haiti's hard news keeps coming. Patients board the hospital ship every day. More than six days into the Comfort's mission here, more than 450 patients are on board — people who were crushed under rubble, who are sick with infections and nursing diseases made worse by neglect.

The death toll has reached 150,000, according to the Haitian government, and as many as 700,000 Haitians may have suffered traumatic injuries because of Jan. 12's earthquake. Tens of thousands are still untreated. Their odds of survival grow if they reach the Comfort.

"We can't save everyone, but we're trying to save as many as we can," Etienne says. "Haiti's going to be rebuilt. It really is. And some of these people are going to help rebuild it."

The Navy presence in Haiti is hard to miss. For many of those living in the rubble of Port-au-Prince, the sight of the Comfort is a promise of hope anchored a mile out in the bay.

At about 70,000 tons, it is bigger than the Navy's biggest battleship, just 100 feet shorter than a typical aircraft carrier. It is painted white and emblazoned on all sides with the Red Cross. Machine gunners stand watch on deck. A small flotilla of frigates and other vessels provides security.

The hospital ship is three football fields long and one wide. It has 250 hospital beds, but can accommodate up to 1,000. The ship's 550-person medical team includes trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, head and neck surgeons, eye surgeons and obstetricians and gynecologists. The USNS Comfort has a sister ship USNS Mercy, homeported in San Diego, California

It is the flagship of an unprecedented U.S. humanitarian mission — Operation Unified Response-Haiti — that includes more than 13,000 troops, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the amphibious troopship USS Bataan, says Capt. Jim Ware, the ship's commanding officer.

The Navy also has identified a 100-acre plot near Port-au-Prince to establish a hospital for patients with less severe injuries that can be treated on shore, he says.

UN looks for Help with Haiti

As the government reported Sunday that 150,000 earthquake victims had been buried, international relief officials turned their attention to long-term strategies for rebuilding the nation.

A donors conference opened yesterday in Montreal, where more than a dozen countries, eight international bodies and six major non-governmental organizations will convene to discuss Haiti’s future.  The United Nations is hoping to put hundreds of Haitians to work cleaning up their battered cities

While celebrities have been raising money for Haiti through private initiatives, the United Nations Development Program’s appeal for $41 million on behalf of Haiti has been getting a tepid response.

Meanwhile, a global army of aid workers was getting more food into people’s hands but acknowledged falling short.  “We wish we could do more, quicker,” said U.N. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran, visiting Port-au-Prince.

Yet another aftershock, one of more than 50 since the quake Jan. 12, shook Port-au-Prince on Sunday, registering 4.7 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The Haitian government was urging many of the estimated 600,000 homeless huddled in open areas of Port-au-Prince, once a city of 2 million, to look for better shelter with relatives or others in the countryside. About 200,000 were believed to have done so, most taking advantage of free government transportation, and others formed a steady stream out of the city on Sunday.

In Port-au-Prince, the scene at Cite Soleil, the capital’s largest slum, showed the need as thousands of men, women and children lined up and waited peacefully for their turn as the American and Brazilian troops handed out aid — the Americans gave ready-to-eat meals, high-energy biscuits and bottled water, and the Brazilians passed out small bags holding uncooked beans, salt, sugar and sardines, as well as water.

The need for medical care, especially surgery, postoperative care and drugs, overwhelmed the help available, aid agencies reported.

On Monday, President Preval issued a statement from Port-au-Prince, calling for the urgent airlift of 200,000 more tents and 26 million ready-to-eat meals before the rainy season begins in May.

The injured wait for help at a makeshift hospital in Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake.

National Church burns

Locals live in make-shift tents in Port-Au-Prince,

Debris lies in the street along Delmas road in Port-au-Prince

Men moving hundred of bodies from the grounds of General Hospital to a grave

Haiti's Ministry of Commerce building in Port-au-Prince was reduced to a pile of debris by the earthquake

A six-story communications building lies collapsed in the street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Haitians carry one of the wounded toward a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

LRAD Communications Systems Deployed in Haiti

“LRAD's multi-language broadcasts via helicopter quickly provide aid and relief messages to the civilian population that can be clearly heard from the air,” said Tom Brown, president and CEO with ATC. “LRAD's exceptional capacity to address small and large gatherings of survivors from the air and over distance frees peacekeeping personnel and emergency responders from having to individually provide instructions and directions, allowing them to attend to other critical duties.”

UMCOR Joins on-the-Ground Relief for Haiti

A UMNS Story by Linda Bloom

The United Methodist Committee on Relief and a host of other faith-based groups are on the ground in Haiti as they determine how to assist earthquake survivors.

With more than $2 million in donations received by Jan. 20, UMCOR already has provided emergency grants to the Methodist Church of Haiti and GlobalMedic, a Canadian relief agency, to address immediate needs.

An assessment team led by UMCOR’s Melissa Crutchfield was gathering in the Dominican Republic Jan. 20 and preparing to enter Haiti. She is accompanied by five others with the relief agency, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Communications.

Other United Methodist-supported organizations, including Church World Service, Action By Churches Together International and Stop Hunger Now, also are responding with aid.

Paul Jeffrey, a United Methodist photojournalist and missionary on assignment with ACT, watched a Mexican rescue team free Anna Zizi from the home of the parish priest at Port-au-Prince's Roman Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption.

“The rescuers were crying afterwards,” reported Jeffrey. It was a welcome opportunity to feel joy amid such devastation, he said.

ACT has deployed a “rapid support team” to Haiti, which will work with members with offices already in Haiti. UMCOR is a pending member of the new ACT Alliance.

Despite rescue efforts, few survivors were being pulled alive from the rubble a week after the earthquake struck.

The Reuters news organization reported that 75,000 bodies were buried in mass graves and that Haitian officials say the toll could be between 100,000 and 200,000. An organization called Partners In Health said 20,000 people are dying daily “who could be saved by surgery,” according to a Jan. 20 story in The Wall Street Journal.

Distributing Water

UMCOR’s partnership with GlobalMedic will focus on the distribution of clean drinking water, says the Rev. Tom Hazelwood, an UMCOR executive. It also will provide medical attention to earthquake survivors.

GlobalMedic is deploying paramedics, water technicians and a doctor to assist the sick or injured, UMCOR reported. A water distribution hub will provide 65,000 people daily with clean drinking water.

Working through local nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations network in Haiti, GlobalMedic also will distribute 110,000 sachets of PUR water purifiers, 5 million Aquatab water purification tablets and 110,000 oral rehydration sachets.

The supplies are being shipped into the Dominican Republic, and then transported by ground into Haiti, Hazelwood said.

One of the tasks for the UMCOR team in Haiti this week will be meeting with Gesner Paul, who leads the Methodist Church of Haiti, to assess how best to work with church members there.

Organizing Volunteers

Mission volunteers from The United Methodist Church have been a strong presence in Haiti for years, so another priority is organizing for future volunteer teams.

“We know the (immediate) need is for medical volunteers,” Hazelwood said. “We’re looking at trying to centralize the volunteer process.”

Bishop Joel Martinez, interim general secretary of the Board of Global Ministries, is advising volunteer teams not to set out for Haiti immediately. “The time for volunteers will come, and their assistance will be crucial,” Martinez said.

Volunteers also are needed in the United States to help assemble health kits and other relief supplies for Haiti at UMCOR’s two supply depots – Sager Brown in Baldwin, La., and UMCOR West in Salt Lake City – as well as other church-owned regional warehouses.

Those interested in volunteering at UMCOR West can contact Director Brian Diggs at (801) 973-7250, or e-mail WestDepot@umcor.org. To volunteer at Sager Brown, call (800) 814-8765.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

A woman who escaped the rubble in the Haitian capital

Haitian presidential palace stands in ruins in Port-au-Prince

Disaster Operations Center

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Mon - Fri

1. Call for Assistance for yourself and family
2. Call for individuals or N. Georgia Teams that want to volunteer.
3. Rebuild teams from outside the Conference.

678-533-1443 

During the time of major response, please direct all contacts through the Disaster Operations Center. At other times, please contact the following. 

Disaster Response Leadership:

Mike Yoder, Committee Chairperson
770-483-6384
m_yoder@ngdisasterresponse.org

Georgia Flood 2009

1. Financial  N GA Advance # 390 for Disaster Flood Relief  Funds for rebuilding are limited.  More is needed badly.

2. Individuals to volunteer as Case Workers or staff the Disaster Operations Center.  Call Center at 678-533-1443.

3.  Teams to rebuild homes Call Disaster Operations Center at 678-533-1443  Case workers have just started working with homeowners and teams that have volunteered are being scheduled  

Clean-up Teams - Avoid Liability

Please ensure that you have a signed right-of-entry form from the homeowner to do clean-up and mud-out work prior to entering the property.  If such a document does not exist with your team or the coordinating agency, do not commence work.  

Sorting Piles for Damaged Homes

Home furnishing, furniture, clothing, and other personal items should be sorted as listed below.  The homeowner should be the person to do this.

1. A Keep Pile
2. A Throw away Pile
3. A Clean up Pile

Curbside Sorting for Debris

Items to be thrown away should be sorted into four piles at the curb.  FEMA declared areas required this sorting, as the contractor trucks picking up will only remove one category at a visit.  These are:

1. Appliance debris (refrigerator-do not open if without power for several days, stove, washer, dryer
2. Building Material

3. Tree products (limbs, logs, leaves)

4. Metal (roofing panels, siding)

Safety Considerations with Clean-Up

1. Stay away from downed power lines and report location to power company.  All lines should be considered live. 

2. Flood waters were contaminated with sewage and chemicals so wear gloves to handle items being moved or removed.  Use sanitizer or thoroughly (20 sec) before touching face or eating (breaks, meals)

3. When entering home watch for damaged or damaged or warped flooring.

4. Use contents of flood buckets to clean and disinfect.  Do not mix chorine bleach and ammonia, the resulting gas will permanently damage your lungs. 

5. If mold is beginning to appear or there is dust, wear a N-95, P-95, N-100 mask.  The mask will have one of the above markings on it. If there is no marking, the mask should not be used, as there are possible long range respiratory implications.

6. Throw out all food and other supplies that you suspect may have become contaminated or come in to contact with floodwater.

7. If appliances are wet, turn off the electricity at the main fuse box or circuit breaker. Then, unplug appliances and let them dry out. Have appliances checked by a professional before using them again.

8. Take frequency water breaks and eat something about 10-12-2 and 4 to maintain your energy level.  Fruit (natural sugar) or items with a low processed sugar level work best.

9. Tape off sharp edges with duct tape

10. Watch for spiders and snakes that might have been left in the home by the flood..

11. Removing water from a basement takes a number of days to prevent failing walls. Pump out to 1/4 down and repeat each day until water stays at that level, then proceed to 1/2 and repeat process. 

12. Keep nails and other sharp objects removed from roadways and driveways. Place in a bag on the metal pile.  Pick up after debris pick-ups

Insurance and Recovery

Homeowners in federally-designated flood plains are required to have flood insurance, in addition to homeowners insurance, with their mortgage.  If they do not have a mortgage or live outside the flood plain, insurance is not required.  Since the Georgia flood exceeded the flood plain boundaries, many homeowners will not have coverage for their property.  

So far, the State Farm who insures about one of every four home in central Georgia reports that they have received, so far, about 4,400 flood claims with about 10% having flood coverage.

The first order of recovery is property & casualty insurance, the second is FEMA and other federal agencies for federally-declared disaster areas through their Disaster Recovery Center, and the final resource is the local  non-profit long term recovery center which supported by local businesses and the faith-based community.