UM relief agency seeks gifts for hurricane response

United Methodist News Service
NEW YORK—As reports filtered in from Nicaragua and Honduras earlier this month about damage from Hurricane Felix, the United Methodist Committee on Relief prepared to respond.
But donations are needed to provide relief both for victims of Felix and others needing assistance during the 2007 hurricane season, said the Rev. Tom Hazelwood, the commit-tee’s domestic disaster coordinator.
Hurricane Felix pummeled the coastlines of northern Nicaragua and southern Honduras Sept. 4 with 160 mph winds and drenching rains. Indigenous people in the area, many unable to evacuate, were expected to be heavily affected by the hurricane and resulting rains and mudslides.
“Our church has responded so generously to the big hurricanes like Katrina … sometimes we forget that the people of Honduras and Nicaragua were devastated by this (Felix),” said Hazelwood Sept. 7.
Giving donations now to the relief committee’s Hurricanes 2007 fund will allow for a more effective response, Hazelwood said.
“With Katrina, the church began to respond before we even knew all the details,” he said. “The need is going to be there (for Felix).”
Hurricanes Felix and Dean marked a serious beginning for the current hurricane season, Hazelwood noted.
“This is the first time in history you’ve had two Category 5 hurricanes make landfall in the same season,” Hazelwood said. “September is the most active hurricane month … who knows what we’ll have to respond to even yet.”
Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma were among the storms that made the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season the most active in recorded history and supplied the relief committee with a record amount of donations for its work.
A recent report, “Serving Survivors,” which can be found on the agency’s Web site, summarizes the denomination’s response so far to damage caused by those hurricanes.
Nearly 6,000 individuals, for example, had received United Methodist assistance as of June 30, during long-term recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast. Total giving was more than $66 million—the highest ever given to a relief committee Advance.
Checks for Hurricanes 2007 can be dropped into church collection plates. Write “UMCOR Advance No. 982511, Hurricanes 2007,” on the check memo line.