UMs brace for Hurricane Dean's arrival
Rick Hill observes Leslie Lee (center) practice interviewing
techniques during case management training Aug 8 at First UMC, Victoria.
More than 40 volunteers learned how to help disaster victims start putting their lives back together this month at two United Methodist churches.
Consultants from the United Methodist Committee on Relief conducted one-day training sessions on case management at Grace UMC, Granite Shoals, Aug. 7 and First UMC, Victoria, Aug. 8.
Students included United Methodists, representatives from other faith groups, American Red Cross volunteers and Federal Emergency Management Agency employees. They are working with people affected by July flooding across Southwest Texas.
Students learned how to interview victims of natural disasters, assess needs and help clients
through their trauma.
“Case management is advocacy for the survivor,” said Rick Hill, a relief committee disaster-response consultant from Harlow, N.C. “It is helping the survivor realize they have potential inside them to recover.”
Hill said case managers assess what resources and abilities families have, research what help is available in the community and match people with aid so
they can better recover.
About 85 percent of disaster victims may find help on their own or pull from their own resources, Hill said. But case management helps those who have no idea where to look or no access to their own resources.
Hill and Barbara Tripp, another relief committee consultant from North Carolina, defined a disaster and discussed steps involved in the emergency, relief and recovery stages. The leaders showed participants where they would fit into the recovery process.
Besides providing resources, Hill said, a case manager must walk alongside clients as they experience changing emotions.
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UMs brace for Hurricane Dean’s arrival
Southwest Texas Conference leaders were bracing this week for Hurricane Dean as they continued assessing aftereffects of Tropical Storm Erin.
Dean was expected to make landfall midweek—after this issue of the Witness had gone to press—somewhere along the Gulf coast in Texas or Mexico.
If it hits Texas, the hurricane could be following close to the course of Tropical Storm Erin. It made landfall early Aug. 16 near Rockport.
The first tropical storm to affect Texas since 2005, Erin was quickly downgraded to a tropical depression and caused little damage along the coast.
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Special events planned to draw visitors
The Rev. Harold Onwiler remembers shopping in the local H-E-B grocery story just before becoming pastor of St. Peter’s by the Sea UMC, Corpus Christi.
He combed the aisles to ask everyone he passed whether Corpus Christi had a United Methodist church.
Most people said they weren’t sure, Onwiler said. One gave him very clear directions to First UMC, Corpus Christi. Another gave him directions to Asbury UMC, Corpus Christi.
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25 Kerrville District UMs take early
disaster-response training
Twenty-five Kerrville District United Methodists learned Aug. 11 how to deliver quick help to neighbors affected by disasters.
The training at St. Paul’s UMC, Kerrville, followed guidelines from the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
The class taught volunteers how to help residents make their homes safe, sanitary and secure in the days after a storm or flood. Jobs include removing soggy carpet, patching the roof and clearing debris from the yard.
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