The following are excerpts from Church World Service Hotline, regarding the recent storms on the Texas Gulf Coast and also Haiti.
Texas Gulf Coast--(Updated 9/15) After leaving a wake of death and destruction across the Caribbean, Hurricane Ike crashed ashore at Galveston, Texas, on Sept. 13, battering southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana and bringing heavy rains and winds to a multi-state area. Some two million homes and businesses remain without power and at least 30 deaths have been attributed to the storm as it has moved northward, leaving a wide swath of flooding. In some coastal areas, officials estimate it may take up to a month to restore utilities.
Lura Cayton, CWS Emergency Response Liaison, is point person with local response organizations for CWS Texas and Louisiana efforts--from the provision of emergency supplies to long-term recovery training and recovery project development assistance. CWS’ Art Jackson is helping to assess needs in Texas.
Pre-positioned supplies. "In the last week and a half we have sent out huge amounts of material resources--blankets, Hygiene and Baby kits and Clean-up Buckets to both Louisiana and in recent days to Texas as they prepared for Ike," reports Donna Derr, CWS Director of Emergency Response.
Working in partnership. CWS works with local partners to ensure that people with the most limited means recover from disaster, and has a history of working with long-term recovery groups on the Gulf Coast. A CWS-Habitat for Humanity International grant helped families in Louisiana and Texas re-build following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
How to help. "These last two weeks we have seen an incredible number of urgent requests for kits and blankets. Our kit inventory is rapidly depleting and we anticipate many further requests over coming weeks," reports Derr. She urges groups to make CWS Kits and hold Blankets+ events--as well as support their local CROP Hunger Walk. "The CWS Kits are needed as soon as possible," she says.
Church World Service is appealing for CWS Kits and for donations to help purchase recovery supplies locally. Cash and CWS Kits, says Derr, are the best ways to help, both domestically and in the Caribbean.
Caribbean Hurricanes--"Since the passage of the hurricanes, our country is experiencing an economic and social catastrophe," says Polycarpe Joseph, Executive Secretary of long-time CWS partner in Haiti the Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice. In Haiti, four storms have hit in recent weeks.
"People have lost everything from their homes and have had nothing to eat," Joseph continues. "It is a situation without precedent in our history. The hurricanes have aggravated the already precarious life of the population."
Joseph reports that there are more than 800,000 direct victims and more than 672 deaths. About 40% of the agricultural sector is destroyed.
"The people need food, clothing, medicines, plastic sheeting, wood, nails, cement."
CWS is responding by supporting long-term partners in the Caribbean. The initial CWS response includes providing a grant to Christian Center for Integrated Development in Haiti for immediate relief efforts.
CWS also plans to provide material assistance (blankets, hygiene kits, baby kits and medicine boxes) to our partner church in Cuba, Iglesia Bando Evangelica Gedeon. Read more about CWS response to needs in the Caribbean in the Newsroom at www.churchworldservice.org.
