March 13, 1998

Thank you for calling the United Methodist Committee on Relief Hotline, Friday, March 13, 1998.

Remember that the One Great Hour of Sharing offering will be taken by local churches March 22. This offering provides important basic support for the work of UMCOR.

UMCOR has established an emergency response Advance number for disasters caused by El Niño . Your gifts to El Niño Recovery, #982328-6 will assist victims of floods, tornadoes, landslides, drought and other El Niño driven disasters. The recovery process will be long-term and costly. Gifts to this Advance will be used where they are most needed in these recovery efforts. If you prefer, you may designate your gift for a specific area. Current El Niño disasters that UMCOR is responding to include: tornadoes in Florida, flooding in Alabama and Georgia, flooding and mudslides in California, drought and forest fires in Indonesia, both drought and torrential rain in Peru and Ecuador.

A warehouse has opened in Elba, Alabama in response to the flood and UMCOR has purchased power washers and moisture meters to assist with clean-up and recovery. At least two counties in Georgia have been affected by flooding as well, and the conference is recruiting local work teams to help with debris removal. Training for case workers in Florida has been completed, and they are in the beginning stages of damage assessment following the tornadoes. The ground is saturated throughout most of the state of Florida and they are waiting to see what will happen as the waters continue to rise.

With so many disasters, the UMCOR Depot in Baldwin, Louisiana has been depleted and flood relief supplies are needed. For a list of materials and shipping instructions, please call the Depot at (800) 814-8765. Volunteers may call (800) 918-3100.

Please pray for those who are affected by these disasters.

UMCOR Hotline:
Phone: 1-800-841-1235
Web: http://gbgm-umc.org/UMCOR-Hotline/
E-mail: umcor@gbgm-umc.org