Good Afternoon All,
Below is the statement UMCOR posted to Facebook about an hour ago on what they are presently doing with the affected Annual Conferences. Please let our churches know that right now the best thing we can do here in Holston Conference is to donate to the UMCOR US Disaster Response and Recovery Advance # 901670, https://advance.umcmission.org/p-620-umcor-us-disaster-response-and-recovery.aspx. In addition, they could begin to make cleaning kits, https://umcmission.org/umcor-cleaning-kit/, and Hygiene kits, https://umcmission.org/umcor-hygiene-kit/. I will be in touch with the affected Conferences about delivering kits out of what we have on hand and we will need to restock because there will be another hurricane down the road. AS you collect kits let me know and we will get them picked up.
If you have a church call about deploying a team to help with the recovery please have them call the Florida Conference Disaster Response Hotline, 855-228-3862. They have trained staff to take the appropriate information and will coordinate with the local officials to make sure all needs are met. Bishop Tom Berlin has released a video, https://vimeo.com/859106858/859106858, asking people to not self-deploy.
Hurricane Idalia has made landfall in Florida, bringing flooding and damage, and is now headed to Georgia and the Carolinas. UMCOR is processing a grant for the The Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church for emergency supplies. In anticipation of the hurricane, UMCOR staff conducted a 2-hour workshop for Cabinet members and conference leadership to review the conference disaster response plan. Please lift up all those affected by this storm, including first responders, with your prayers. You can donate to UMCOR’s response to this and other disasters here: https://advance.umcmission.org/p-620-umcor-us-disaster…
