Florida United Methodists take no chances with Floyd

Date: September 15, 1999

At four times the size of Hurricane Andrew, weather forecasters are calling Hurricane Floyd the biggest storm yet to threaten the United States mainland.

An estimated 3.5 million residents in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas are evacuating their homes, and Virginia is expected to tell its coastal residents to move inland. Governors in all five states have declared states of emergency, and President Clinton declared Florida and Georgia federal disaster areas on Sept. 15.

The Rev. David Harris, left, and a church member board up windows at Mims United Methodist Church's parsonage in preparation for Hurricane Floyd.

The hurricane is expected to make landfall Sept. 16 near the border of North and South Carolina.

Shelters in Central Florida's Orange County are housing 4,000 residents alone, the most ever in shelters there, according to local news reports. The United Methodist Church's Florida Annual (regional) Conference has activated more than 780 churches as shelters.

"We've put out the word to our membership to bring their neighbors," said the Rev. Barry Lane, at Morrison United Methodist Church. "We aren't going to turn anyone away."

Nearly 60 percent of the members of Mims (Fla.) United Methodist Church have evacuated, according to the Rev. David Harris, Mims' pastor. The church is in the Florida Conference's Melbourne District.

"We called all members and know where everyone is," Harris said Sept. 14. "A good number are leaving."

Many of the church's members live in mobile homes and left them after mandatory evacuations of mobile home parks, barrier islands and low-lying areas were issued.

 Mims is in Brevard County five miles north of the city of Titusville and one of the places that the storm was expected to hit hardest. "We're on the hump of the state," Harris said. "Probably in the worst of it."

Streets were bare, stores were closed and there was "almost not a car out there," he said. "People are hunkering down to weather out the storm."

Mims United Methodist Church in Florida prepares to weather Hurricane Floyd and help the community once it hits.

Mims member and trustees chair Bill Touchton was not one of them. He, his wife and 16-year-old daughter headed inland to Sanford to ride out the storm at a hotel there.

"I just happened to be in Miami for work three months after Hurricane Andrew. I know they're [hurricanes] nothing to fool around with," Touchton said. "Those who didn't get to see it just don't understand."

Touchton said they decided to leave Sept. 12 and were prepared. In fact, he said his family is always prepared, especially after enduring wildfires that devastated the area around his home and other parts of the state last year.

"The fires came within a mile of us," he said. "We were ready to run if it came to that."

Despite Floyd's threat, Touchton said he was calm about the storm and evacuating. "You've got to be calm about it. There's nothing you can do about it but get out of the way," he said. "You leave the rest in the Lord's hands."

Some churches are housing people with special needs. The Azalea Park United Methodist Church in Orlando is providing shelter to nearly 50 Alzheimer's patients from a retirement home in Palm Bay. Other Orlando churches have offered their parking lots to boat and camper owners who need a secure place to park their vehicles.

The Sanlando United Methodist Church in Longwood, Fla., has opened its doors for pets and their owners, since most shelters don't allow pets.

Members of at least eight United Methodist churches in the DeLand District, which includes the Daytona Beach and Palm Coast areas, also evacuated, according to Martha Gay Duncan of that district's office.

She said spirits are good, however, and members are lending a hand to neighbors. The Rev. Neil Lacy and a group of men from First United Methodist Church, New Smyrna Beach, went house to house one night helping residents secure their homes with plywood.

DeLand District Superintendent Mont Duncan delivered $200 worth of food to a shelter at the DeLand fairgrounds at the request of the emergency management office.

"We are in a waiting mode to see what challenges we face and in what ways we can share God's love in the days ahead," Martha Duncan said. "Pray for us."

Donations for Hurricane Floyd Relief may be sent to the United Methodist Committee on Relief and marked for Hurricanes '99 -- Advance #982460-1. Checks can be placed in church offering plates or sent directly to UMCOR at Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, N.Y. 10115. Credit-card donations may be made by calling 1-800-554-8583.

*This story was compiled from reports by Tita Parham, editor of the Florida United Methodist Review newspaper, and Susan Kim of Disaster News Network.