Community of Faith Cares for People Hurt by Ike

Following an email message telling of an immediate need for baby care and flood clean-up items, members of Emory and Alba United Methodist Churches moved into action. The communication came from a Hurricane Ike-recovering pastor/friend of Rev. Kelly S. Krone, pastor for the two area churches and his wife, Jill. In the email, their friend relayed details of the destruction to property, homes and lives wrought by Ike. “As soon as the news reached us, we started sharing the need with others in our community – through our church sign, emails, word of mouth, at church functions – wherever and however we could let people know of this immediate need,” shared Rev. Krone. 

The response was amazing and overwhelming as members of the two churches, various community groups and individuals brought donations to the Emory and Alba Methodist Churches . “We learned of the need on Wednesday and were able to deliver a very full SUV-load of supplies on Monday morning,” Krone said. Donations included multiple baby care items of diapers, wipes, lotions, formulas and foods.  A large number of non-perishable canned food items were also donated. John Royar, of Alba UMC, shared that people from all over were helping and that a local radio station had even made an announcement about the collection of donations at the church during their coverage of the county fair.

The Emory Methodist Church supplied items to create 15 (fifteen) five-gallon flood buckets packed with necessary clean-up products. Local members provided additional cases of bleach – a much sought after item for battling the mold already taking hold in many hurricane Ike damaged homes. Twenty health kits, with items for personal care, were created by the Emory United Methodist Women for delivery and distribution in the effected region. The pastor’s dentist made possible the donation of 100 toothbrushes and nearly as many individual tubes of toothpaste. 

A special offering was collected in both churches with almost $1500.00 raised for recovery efforts across the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church . “It just makes you feel so good to help,” shared Emory Methodist’s Mary White. “Putting together the flood buckets gave me such energy and pleasure that I don’t know why I don’t do things for people in need more often.”

With nearly every district in the Conference affected, Bishop Janice Riggle Huie noted in a recent message to pastors and churches, “we now have reports of damage to more than 200 Methodist structures.” Hardest hit areas include Sabine Pass , Galveston , Bolivar Peninsula and Bridge City . 

The Krones departed Sunday afternoon, September 28, 2008, with a car-load of donated supplies to be delivered to the Port Arthur/Beaumont area. While in the region, they were able to tour and travel through Bridge City and Orange . The devastation is total as houses were inundated with water over 5 (five) feet high from the storm surge. People have begun doing what they can with their homes. Streets are lined with piles of debris – not trash but the possessions and memories of families and individual lives.  Houses are being gutted and scrubbed with bleach to combat mold.

While is this region, the Krones witnessed the heartache of those with no place to live except for the tent-cities set up on airport runways. They also learned that over 400 persons are still unaccounted for.  Search and recovery efforts continue as officials seek to help families of these victims find closure but hope is fading in light of the wide-spread devastation.

The Texas Annual Conference expects recovery efforts to be a multi-year situation with financial repercussions greater than those from Hurricane Rita. “Three years ago you contributed over $1 million dollars for Rita Recovery. UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) contributed $4 million.  Because of your generosity and the generosity of the UMC people around the world, nearly 850 homes in Southeast Texas were re-built. The need for Ike Recovery will be much greater,” Bishop Huie noted in her message. 

The need is so great that many wonder how to start, how to help? The Emory United Methodist Church office ( 456 N. Texas Street ) will continue to accept financial donations and supplies. These donations will go directly to the recovery efforts - individuals and churches - within the Texas Conference. Within the next few weeks, a team of workers, made up of members from both Emory and Alba UMC, is expected to travel into the Bridge City area to do hands-on clean up assistance. Future additional work trips will provide the area with reconstruction labor and materials.