[UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 267-United Methodists rally to help Iowa flood survivors

[NewsDesk]

United Methodists rally to help Iowa flood survivors  

Jun. 27, 2008     

NOTE: Photographs and audio are available at http://umns.umc.org. 

By Marta W. Aldrich* 

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (UMNS)-For 30 years, Doug Ward has invested himself
in a working-class neighborhood of Cedar Rapids where his family has
lived, worked and gone to church-all within a few blocks of each other.

On June 13, he lost all three-his home, his business and his church
building-to the rush of floodwaters from nearby Cedar River. Left behind
were shoulder-high piles of debris, the stench of dirty water and soggy
buildings that may or may not be salvageable.

"They've been parts of my life for the last 30 years, and they're all
flooded out," said Ward, 64, as he stood on the lawn of St. James United
Methodist Church, his long-time congregation, just a few blocks from his
family's A&W root beer drive-in. 

"You just trust in God, and he'll take care of us. It will work out. We
take it one day at a time." 

Flood survivors with such multiple losses are not uncommon in hard-hit
Cedar Rapids and a special concern of United Methodist Bishop Gregory
Palmer. "You imagine that, rightly or wrongly, I could handle one of
these, and I could probably bear up under two. But how do you bear up
under three: my livelihood, my home and the place that symbolizes my
faith?" asked Palmer, of the church's Iowa Area, as he surveyed flood
damage upriver in Charles City on June 23.

In Cedar Rapids, which has suffered the highest concentration of Midwest
flooding in recent weeks, some 4,000 homes in mostly blue-collar
neighborhoods were submerged after days of heavy rain swelled the Cedar
River. The downtown river crested almost 20 feet above flood stage and
spilled water over 1,300 blocks. So far, city officials have ordered 300
houses demolished and are determining whether structures in the most
flood-prone areas can be rebuilt.

Those include the Time Check neighborhood where Ward lives, works and
worships. Other neighborhoods affected also have primarily older homes,
and some are in low-income areas. Many residents work in the service or
manufacturing sectors at plants such as nearby Quaker Oats or Square D,
which also were flooded.

Palmer said the church is focusing on residents who have little
resources and are dependent on the government, the church and volunteer
organizations for assistance. Like Ward, most residents displaced by the
floods don't have flood insurance.

First responders 

The bishop praised the work of local pastors who are "heroically and
nobly" ministering to their neighborhoods, even as their church
buildings and sometimes even their own homes are flooded. Three Cedar
Rapids congregations-St. James, Salem and Trinity-have buildings that
were heavily damaged.

In the storms' wake, St. James established a makeshift hospitality
center on its front lawn to provide residents with bottled water, health
kits, cleaning supplies and food, in addition to pastoral care. "I think
we were supposed to be out on the lawn instead of in our building the
whole time anyway," said the Rev. Beth Straw, as she stacked boxes of
American Red Cross cleaning kits. "People don't feel like there is a
boundary of walls between us any more."

About a mile away at the Salem church, the Rev. Linda Bibb was
coordinating assistance to help area residents find alternative housing,
muck out their homes and apply for aid from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency-a challenge that she likens to "triage."

"You have to decide what gets done first, so the first thing we did was
not (to focus on) our church building," she said. "... We discover who
needs us most in the community and we go there first because the church
is not the building."

In the city's Taylor neighborhood, Trinity United Methodist Church moved
its Matthew 25 ministry hub for economically challenged people to the
dry basement of nearby Sharon United Methodist Church. The congregation
is reaching out to a neighborhood that was struggling even before the
floods hit. "If we ever get a better evangelism moment than this, I
don't know what it's going to be," said the Rev. Bob Voels, pastor.

In the week after the waters receded, the district's United Methodist
pastors scattered each morning to walk the streets of the Ellis Park and
Time Check neighborhoods to minister to residents as they were allowed
to return and inspect their homes. "I've gone to a lot of people's
homes," said Straw. "Some of these people I've never met and they will
just melt in my arms. They'll cry and we'll pray together."

First United Methodist Church of Marion, which was not damaged in the
flooding, quickly became a local command center to coordinate church
groups and other volunteers assisting in the cleanup process. The church
already has hosted teams from Iowa, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee and
booked more than 30 groups through next March. "Everybody does their
piece. This is our piece," said the Rev. Mike Morgan, Marion's lead
pastor.

More rain 

Even as the church and volunteer organizations worked to respond to the
needs, strong Midwestern downpours returned June 26 to already
waterlogged parts of Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, renewing anxiety about
more flooding.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief issued an urgent call for more
flood buckets filled with cleaning supplies. UMCOR has shipped more than
5,000 flood buckets since June 16 in response to requests from United
Methodist annual (regional) conferences in the Midwest, compared with
about 4,000 buckets distributed during all of 2007. "We are down to only
200 flood buckets in stock, and we are only two weeks into the hurricane
season," said Kathy Kraiza, who oversees the Sager Brown Depot in
Baldwin, La.

In Iowa, where 70 of the state's 99 counties have been declared federal
disaster areas, UMCOR has issued two $10,000 emergency grants to the
church's annual conference in less than a month-one for a May 25 tornado
that flattened much of the rural Parkersburg community and the latest
one for the recent floods. 

Sandra Kennedy-Owes, UMCOR executive secretary for U.S. disaster
response, toured the state's northeastern communities on June 23 and
pledged that the relief organization will partner with the annual
conference to provide additional funding, training and consultation as
the disaster moves into the long-term recovery stage. 

The conference has identified three staging areas to host Volunteers in
Mission teams and others in cleanup and rebuilding across Iowa. "The
Volunteers in Mission kind of support is beginning to escalate, and we
need it to," said Palmer. "... This will be unfolding for months to come
and the disruption in some people's lives will be evident ... for years,
but certainly for the next year."

Palmer expressed his gratitude "for the ways in which we have felt the
support and love, tangibly and spiritually, of United Methodists all
over the world." The church's Western Pennsylvania Conference sent
$20,000 in offerings collected at its recent annual conference meeting,
along with a grant from its own disaster response fund. "Other
conferences have sent or been in touch about how they can
partner-whether through Volunteers in Mission or money or all of the
above. To all of it, we say yes," the bishop said.

For information about how to help, visit the Iowa Conference Web site at
www.iaumc.org/storms2008. To donate to UMCOR's relief efforts in the
Midwest, drop checks in church offering plates or mail them directly to
UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087. Write Advance #901670 Midwest
Flooding Relief on the memo line. Credit card donations can be made by
calling (800) 554-8583 or online at www.givetomission.org.

*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service. 

News media contact: Marta Aldrich, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk at umcom.org. 

******************** 

United Methodist News Service 
Photos and stories also available at: 
http://umns.umc.org 




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