An update on the situation from Kathie L. Mann

Dear Friends,

Things have been running at 200 mph around here. I thought I should give you an update on the situation so you will have an idea of where we are. I hope all of you made it through the storm with minimal damage. Some of us didn’t. Vivian Pinard’s home is severely flooded and they are living with neighbors. Others have had some roof damage. If you need a team at your house, let me know!

Ike damage was very serious in our South and South East Districts. We have churches that are missing others with damage so bad that they will not be repaired. Sabine Pass doesn’t look like it did before except that the Parsonage we all worked on is still standing!! Galveston Island and all areas to the east and west along the coast do not look the same.

From a map perspective, if you look at all the waterways leading from the Gulf you will find severe damage. The storm surge was like a tsunami in many respects as it marched in strong and deep, destroying neighborhoods in its path. So all along the waterfront to the top of the Bay, over to Anahuac and following the coast over to Sabine Pass the storm surge was tremendous. Once you get past the coastal area, then we see lots of wind damage with trees causing substantial damage to homes.

Right now, as you can guess, we are mucking out homes from flood waters all along the coastal and water edge areas. Trees are being cut up and debris removal is happening everywhere else from Houston to Missouri City to Crosby and all points east.

Eddie Hilliard has been hired for the next 90 days to over see the Houston/Galveston (and surrounding area) of Ike Recovery. Alan Miller has been hired for 90 days to organize the clean up/construction sites. I am in charge of scheduling volunteers and housing them.

Rita Recovery in Beaumont is now “Disaster Recovery” and they will continue working with their staff in the eastern portions of our Conference for Hurricane Ike.

Flood buckets are still needed as we “owe” Sager Brown UMCOR Depot 1000’s to help them resupply. We are still accepting buckets for our area and they disappear from the church parking lots as quickly as they are dropped off. So your churches and church groups can continue to put them together.

If you have a team wanting to work in the recovery effort please contact the office. I will pass on your information to both area offices. There is still plenty of clean up to do. We are hoping rebuilding/repairs can begin after the first of the year.

Other PIM news:

The first Team Leader Training scheduled for Oct 11 has been cancelled because we are all too busy with recovery.

Team Leader Training on Sept.25 at St. Luke’s UMC will still be held. Please get the word out to any of those who need this early training. It will be January before the next training session. Right now we only have 2 registrations. I know teams are going out in Dec/Jan/Feb and they need to get to the Sept. training. Registration attached.

Please get your project 2008 Proposal in. I have only a handful and if I don’t have your Proposal in by next week, I will not put it in the budget. I will attach a Proposal to this email for you to fill out.

The Executive Committee voted to release $20,000 from carry over money to help with any material supplies needed for the Relief and Response stages of Ike. TAC is waiting on money from UMCOR but there are things that need to happen before that money arrives. Stairs to homes, for instance, need to be built so families can clean out their homes. If the money isn’t used, then it stays in our account. We do have money in the carry over to assist this fund.

I hope all of you are ok and participating in the response efforts. We are encouraging people to help in their own neighborhoods. If you find an area that we need to know about please call Alan Miller at 409-679-0608 so he can take a look at it. This will also facilitate getting clean up teams to that area.

Blessings to all of you!
Kathie L. Mann
Director, Partners In Mission
Texas Annual Conference
5215 Main St.
Houston, TX 77002
713-521-9383