UMCOR Responds to Cyclone in India

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) will be working with its ecumenical partner in India to respond to devastation caused by an Oct. 29, 1999 cyclone there.

The storm, one of the strongest in India's history, struck the coastal districts of the state of Orissa and was called a "super cyclone" because of its accompanying high winds and tidal waves. An estimated 15 million are thought to be homeless, and the death toll is expected to number in the thousands.

UMCOR's response will be through the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), which is an organization similar to the ecumenical Church World Service in the United States. It represents 24 Protestant and Orthodox churches in India and is a member of Action By Churches Together (ACT), a worldwide ecumenical organization for disaster relief.

CASA already receives an annual grant of $100,000 from UMCOR and additional funds are being requested to deal with this emergency, said Sarla Lall, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, UMCOR's parent agency. She called CASA "a very effective agency. It has staff all over India."

The agency initially will target its humanitarian aid to 20,000 families belonging to the economically weakest portion of society. "The people urgently need shelter, food, clothes, domestic kitchen utensils and blankets," CASA's appeal reported. "The next task will be to start the rehabilitation phase for people whose homes and means of livelihood have been destroyed."

"It is the worst, the worst ever. Nothing is left. Where to live? What to eat?" exclaims Surendra Mahapatra, 75. Until a week ago, this place was his home. Credit: Lisbeth Engbo, ACT-DCA, Orissa, India, Nov. 1999.