During the week of July 25, a single storm system moved across multiple states causing flash flooding from Missouri to parts of Virginia and West Virginia. The flooding resulted in damaged homes and buildings, loss of life, and whole towns left underwater, especially in the greater St. Louis, Mo., area and a large area of southeastern Kentucky. Brethren Disaster Ministries and the Material Resources program have been responding as possible and requested.
For an update from Children’s Disaster Services, see the story below, titled “Children’s Disaster Services has a busy few weeks,” or find it online at www.brethren.org/news/2022/cds-has-a-busy-few-weeks.
In Kentucky
As of Aug. 11, Material Resources has sent three shipments of relief goods on behalf of Church World Service (CWS). The shipments went to the communities of Prestonsburg, Hazard, and Myra, Ky., and included more than 1,100 clean-up buckets as well as hygiene kits, toothpaste, school kits, and blankets.
Southern Ohio and Kentucky District has been leading the way in the Church of the Brethren response in Kentucky. District disaster coordinators Burt and Helen Wolf have been coordinating with the Flat Creek and Mud Lick churches and their local partners to identify needs. Following those expressed needs, they have gathered, from within the district, donations of non-perishable food, hygiene supplies, and cleaning supplies, which were delivered to a center in Oneida, Ky. The district will watch for other ways to offer support based on needs shared with them in the weeks and months to come.
Brethren Disaster Ministries staff have been and will continue to be in close communication with the district, the Kentucky Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (KYVOAD), and other partners working in the area to identify needs and share them.
A $10,000 allocation from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) has been requested to support the current Children’s Disaster Services team in Missouri, any future deployments in Missouri or Kentucky that are not financed by the Red Cross, and other short-term or long-term relief or recovery needed.
How to help
Donate financially. Gifts to the EDF will assist in response to both the short-term and long-term needs in the affected areas, since it will take years to recover from such destruction. Give online at www.brethren.org/givebdm or mail checks to Emergency Disaster Fund, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120. In-kind gifts opportunities are being posted by Mud Lick Church of the Brethren at www.facebook.com/Mud-Lick-Church-of-the-Brethren-174812215878985.
Please do not self-deploy as that causes an extra management burden to an already overwhelmed leadership. In-person opportunities to volunteer include, in Kentucky, volunteering for clean-up through All Hands and Hearts at www.allhandsandhearts.org/programs/kentucky-flood-relief. Virtual opportunities to volunteer without leaving home are offered through Crisis Cleanup, which needs volunteers to take calls from survivors who need assistance with their homes; go to www.crisiscleanup.org/training.
Assemble kits for distribution by Church World Service: More hygiene kits, school kits, and clean-up buckets will be needed to replace those being shipped by the Material Resources program based at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. This will allow the continued response to future disasters by building up the supply stored at and shipped from the Brethren Service Center warehouse. Go to www.cwskits.org for instructions.
Be in prayer: Pray for survivors, those who have lost family members, and leaders and volunteers who are responding, especially as the weather forecast is predicting more rain and possibly more flooding in coming days.