CONTACT: Joretta Purdue, Sept. 11, 1996

While areas from North Carolina to central Pennsylvania struggle to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Fran and the resulting flooding, Puerto Rico was just beginning to count the toll from Hurricane Hortense's passage Sept. 10.

This hurricane, with winds of about 80 miles an hour, did its damage with 12 to 18 inches of rain, destroying roads, carrying off houses and wiping out power.

Government officials said 85 percent of the island's homes and workplaces were without electricity and 93 percent of the people were without potable water.

At least eight people are dead and as many are missing, but the church center of The Methodist Church of Puerto Rico is intact. Personnel of the autonomous affiliate of the United Methodist Church were trying to establish contact with the southern portion of the island, which was hardest hit.

The church center, in the San Juan area, will serve as a staging center for distribution of relief materials once conditions permit assessment of the needs, said a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries who succeeded in establishing telephone contact with the center by mid-day Sept. 11.

Thousands of the island territory's 3.6 million people spent the night of Sept. 10 in shelters.

Hurricane Hortense moved on, skirting the Dominican Republic. By noon Sept. 11, the storm's winds had strengthened to 100 miles an hour and the eye was 35 miles east of the Turks Islands.

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New York, and Washington.

For general information about the United Methodist Church call InfoServ at 1-800/251-8140.

E-mail to UMCOR: umcor@gbgm-umc.org

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