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Emergency Appeal Update: Hurricane Katrina Response
October
6,
2005
This updates information on the Church World Service response to Hurricane Katrina.
1. CWS Tools & Blankets and "Gift of the Heart" Kit Update
As of October 5, Church World Service has shipped $1.4 million in material assistance to affected areas.
The shipments have included:
- 19,170 CWS Blankets (valued at $104,010)
- 76,733 "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits (valued at $1,002,898)
- 8,775 CWS "Gift of the Heart" School Kits (valued at $92,895)
- 808 CWS "Gift of the Heart" Kids Kits (valued at $19,392)
- 4,335 CWS Emergency Clean-up Buckets (valued at $195,075)
- 20 IMA Medicine Boxes and 17 UNICEF Recreational Kits (combined valued at $21,953).
Shipments have been made to recovery and relocation centers in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
2. Recovery work by CWS Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons (DRRLS)
CWS DRRLs are on-site this week in southern Louisiana and in central/Gulf Coast Mississippi, working with members of the local and statewide faith-community, voluntary organizations, and government agencies, assisting in all areas of emergency response and recovery.
Latest DRRL deployments for the week of October 3:
Mississippi: Tom Davis in the counties of Lauderdale, Newton, Jasper, Clark, Jefferson Davis, Covington, Wayne, Jones, Kemper and Forrest. Davis is also working with National VOAD Emotional and Spiritual Care. Tim Johnson is in the counties of Pearl River, Stone, George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson. Johnson is also working with the Gulf Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force. Charlie Moeller in the city of Jackson and surrounding counties, as well as working with the statewide faith community and then moving to the south and west counties from Jackson as his base.
Louisiana: Lura Cayton working with the State Interchurch Council and in the Baton Rouge area, as well as Vermillion Parish and in the Acadiana Region.
3. Relocation Update:
Services are being provided in ten states through CWS' established network of local agencies normally providing resettlement assistance to persons from around the world. Giving priority to people most in need, the program is helping Katrina evacuees:
Connect to disaster recovery resources offered by federal and state agencies;
Find affordable housing, jobs and health care;
Enroll their children in school;
Integrate into their new communities - whether their stay ultimately
is short or long.
CWS/IRP is supporting relocation services being provided through its field office in Miami and through the following eight of its local affiliates:
- Georgia: Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (serving Athens, Atlanta, Dalton, Macon, and Savannah)
- Illinois: Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries (serving Chicago and Champaign/Urbana)
- Kentucky: Kentucky Refugee Ministries (serving Danville, Lexington, and Louisville)
- Michigan: Programs Assisting Refugee Acculturation/Bethany Christian Services (serving Grand Rapids, Holland, Kalamazoo, & Traverse City)
- North and South Carolina: Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (serving Asheboro, Burlington, Charlotte, Greensboro, High Point, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem, NC, and Columbia, Irmo, Spartanburg, and West Columbia, SC)
- Tennessee: Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services (serving Bristol, Greeneville, Johnson City, Kingsport, and Knoxville)
- Texas: Refugee Services of Texas (serving Amarillo, Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth)
- Virginia: Virginia Council of Churches (serving Harrisonburg, Newport News, and Richmond)
Local relocation efforts include:
++ Florida, with 14,000 evacuees and counting, is getting a significant amount of secondary resettlement from Houston. As of Sept. 27, the CWS Miami Office had accepted 15 cases (45 individuals) for assistance. About half are living in hotels and the rest with relatives, many in crowded conditions. Some are disabled. About 95 percent of evacuees are requesting housing assistance. The Red Cross is providing temporary hotel vouchers but they are going to expire shortly and FEMA assistance has not been available. CWS Miami already has provided food assistance and clothing to evacuees.
++ Georgia: As of Sept. 27, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta had registered 80 families - seven of them Katrina evacuees who originally were in Houston and then had to move to Atlanta because of Hurricane Rita. Evacuees need apartments, rent assistance, furniture, household goods, and transportation assistance. Some have jobs and have enrolled their children in school; others still need help with these things. There are a few mental health issues and some evacuees need medications, RRISA reports. RRISA has done eight trainings with churches on co-sponsorship of evacuees, and is beginning to match co-sponsors and evacuees.
++ Illinois: Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, Chicago, is a member of the newly formed Relocation Coordination Council for Metropolitan Chicago, which intends to do the initial intake interviews, then refer clients to participating agencies. Council partners include the United Way, Heartland Alliance, World Relief, and the Jewish Federation. The Illinois Red Cross has registered a total of 7,000 evacuees. They are living in shelters or with relatives. IRIM expects evacuees living with family members or friends soon will start requesting more assistance with housing as their situations become more untenable. Kelly Johnson of IRIM noted that IRIM had visited a mental health facility in Elgin, Ill., that has been converted into a shelter for evacuees. “32 individuals are living there and are relatively comfortable,” she said on Sept. 28. “Their first priority is to find a job and then move out of the shelter.” IRIM expects to assist approximately 400 individuals.
++ Kentucky: The city of Louisville is hosting 2,500 evacuees. Kentucky Refugee Ministries is assisting evacuees living next door to its offices in a shelter owned by Highland Presbyterian Church, Carol Young reported on Sept. 29. Fourteen families just moved into city apartments, and KRM is continuing to make sure their needs are met - for example: household goods, school enrollment, jobs, and assistance with medical appointments. “One family, a single mother with five children, will need particular attention,” Young said. “However, the city government has already agreed to pay her rent for three months and she has found a job.” Twenty others in the Highland shelter are medical evacuees from Hurricane Rita, and are expected to return to Texas within 30 days. A KRM caseworker checks in with them periodically. KRM also will be working with evacuees staying in hotels or with families, and will be getting referrals from a family assistance center in Louisville. To date, KRM has held two orientations for people who want to sponsor families, and reports “a good response to these orientations and an outpouring of volunteer support and donations from the community.”
++ Michigan: One of the first clients served by PARA Refugee Services in Grand Rapids had been living in a homeless shelter for 30 days. A contact in the Red Cross Center has been referring evacuees to PARA (Programs Assisting Refugee Acculturation). Jotham Ippel of PARA reported on Sept. 28 that evacuees’ greatest need appears to be housing, and PARA is giving that first priority. Evacuees also are having a difficult time negotiating the different agencies offering assistance, he said. “PARA will try to meet the clients’ needs in a coordinated way,” Ippel said.
++ Carolinas: Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas is active in all four major metropolitan areas in the Carolinas in different ways, reported Pat Priest and Shirley Thoms on Sept. 28. In Greensboro, N.C., where there are many evacuees, LFS is working with United Way on intake and case management. Thoms estimates LFS may be able to assist between 300-500 evacuees in this area alone with case management, immigration services, mental health assistance and general guidance. In Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., and Columbia, S.C., evacuees are in need of transportation and childcare. In Charlotte, LFS is organizing Care Team trainings and is collaborating with another agency to identify a case management model and to develop effective communication tools, such as training manuals. In Columbia, LFS is working with the mayor’s group on assistance efforts.
++ Tennessee: Richard Robinson of Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Knoxville and Bristol, Tenn., has reported a highly fluid situation in that state. The shelters are emptying, but Bridge has heard that many evacuees need case management services. The Red Cross registered 8,000 evacuees in the Knoxville and Tri-Cities areas but it is unclear how many are left. Robinson said Bridge anticipates serving 100 people in Bristol and 100 in Knoxville.
++ Texas: Katrina evacuees and Rita displaced now residing in Texas number in the hundreds of thousands, many of whom are in great need of assistance, reported Chip Corcoran of Refugee Services of Texas on Sept. 27. Corcoran will administer RST’s response out of its Dallas office. Evacuee s’ immediate needs for clothing, food, and blankets appear to have been met, but RST is concerned about people falling between the cracks, especially those in rural areas. RST is opening a sub-office in Amarillo the first week of October, where there also are about 4,000 evacuees. RST is maintaining a database of churches’ abilities and resources to draw on for evacuee assistance - and, eventually, potentially for refugee resettlement assistance. Corcoran says RST does not want to advocate for permanent housing in Texas, but acknowledges that about 35 percent of the evacuees won’t be able to afford to move back, even with government assistance.
4. Request for Clean-up Buckets:
CWS is requesting support to replenish its supply of Clean-up Buckets. These supplies enable people to begin the overwhelming job of cleaning up after a flood, hurricane, tornados, or other disaster here in the United States. The value per bucket is $45.
Specifics:
One 5 gallon bucket with re-sealable lid
Five scouring pads
Seven sponges, assorted sizes
One scrub brush
Eighteen cleaning towels (reusable, like Easy Wipes®)
One 50-78 oz. box dry laundry detergent
One 12 oz. bottle of liquid concentrated household cleaner (like Lysol®)
One 25 oz. bottle liquid disinfectant dish soap (like Dawn®)
Fifty clothespins
Clothesline, two 50 ft. or one 100 ft.
Five dust masks
Two pairs latex gloves
One pair work gloves
One 22-27 count box heavy-duty trash bags (33-45 gallon)
One 6-14 oz. bottle of insect repellant (drops or lotion, not aerosol)
Please purchase all liquids in plastic bottles. Be sure to send only new, unopened materials. Put all items in the plastic bucket, making sure they are packed securely to avoid damage during shipment, and seal lid with packing tape. Place each Bucket in a separate box.
Buckets may be taken directly to the CWS warehouse in New Windsor, Maryland, or shipped prepaid to:
Church World Service
Brethren Service Center Annex
601 Main Street
P.O. Box 188
New Windsor, MD 21776-0188
(Please include both the PO box and the street address on boxes.)
Please add $3 per Clean-up Bucket for processing and shipping. Do not include these funds in the box. Please send your check, earmarked for processing/shipping to:
Church World Service
28606 Phillips Street
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
800-297-1516
EMERGENCY APPEAL
This is an information update for CWS expanded appeal #6280 - Hurricane Katrina Response originally released September 8. CWS has issued a separate appeal for Hurricane Rita (#6281).
This appeal requests collective funding for three program components of Church World Service's response that will assure development of effective, sustainable long-term recovery. The appeal will support: Response; Recovery; Relocation; Spiritual and Emotional Care; and CWS tools of hope in the form of Blankets and Kits.
Church World Service
Hurricane Katrina Response -- #6280
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made by credit card by calling: (800) 297-1516, ext. 222, or by making a secure gift online .
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