WHEN THE STORM IS OVER... your andgenerositykindness,loveabound… ACTION UPDATE YOUR U.S. AND GLOBAL DISASTER RESPONSE IMPACT REPORT UMCOR's disaster response reaches across the country and around the world. A couple comforts each other after losing their home in the Cambridge Shores, KY, tornado in December 2021.
U.S. Disaster Response: Neighbors helping neighbors Stories rebuildingof 2
From wildfires to historic storms, the upending of life, property and community by extreme weather dominates the news. But the story doesn't end when the nightly news moves on. Because people like you are moved to compassion, communities across the country also share common experiences of rebuilding, re-connection, ingenuity and flexibility. With your assistance, UMCOR equips local partners to lead both immediate disaster response and long-term recovery efforts, so that the story being written can be one of resilience and hope.
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Between mold and the destruction of furnaces and hot water heaters, homes became uninhabitable.
The Michigan Conference immediately mobilized flood buckets, hygiene kits, donations and community-based volunteer assistance to residents. But support from UMCOR will address residents’ longer term needs of mold and mildew mitigation, construction management, the replacement of items such as appliances and furniture and other needs survivors identify.
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Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky Floods: Faithful presence as the waters recede
In May of 2022, UMCOR approved a $2.9 million grant to the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference to continue local recovery, expanding the conference’s disaster case management, volunteer coordination and construction capacity to help 1,250 households not only recover but become stronger than they were before the storms.
Those floods took place just over a year after flooding devastated portions of Middle Tennessee. In five hours on August 21, 2021, 20 inches of rainfall, rising waters and a storm surge caused catastrophic damage and took 20 lives. More than a thousand households emerged from the storm needing years’ long recovery assistance.
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In late July 2022, Eastern Kentucky experienced disastrous historic floods that claimed at least 37 lives and deci mated an already struggling region. Although response efforts are in the early stages, UMCOR rapidly approved a $10,000 grant that gave the Eastern Kentucky Conference the freedom to address survivors’ immediate needs. With your help, in six to eight months UMCOR will transition its support into a faithful, continuing presence accompa nying many low-income communities in Kentucky on the journey toward holistic recovery.
A similar goal of resilience guides UMCOR’s post-storm work in Michigan. In June of 2021, storms brought six inches of rain to metro Detroit. The heaviest rainfall affected many multigenerational households, where family members often occupy basement apartments. Detroit’s crumbling infrastructure caused sewer backups that created tremendous damage in those living spaces.
– BISHOP LEONARD FAIRLEY4
Tornadoes in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama: Providing the resources to rebuild
To participate in that healing, UMCOR first addressed local communities’ immediate needs: housing, food and shelter for the winter. With your generosity, UMCOR continues to partner with the Tennessee Western Kentucky Conference in these federally declared disaster areas, providing case management, volunteer coordi nation and construction oversight for communities.
A little over one year later, on September 1, 2021, Hurricane Ida battered the same region. When residents of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey thought the worst was over, they found it had just begun: The storm relented, but the creeks and rivers rose and flooded homes’ lower floors.
Survivors often struggle with the financial burden of recovery. This is the case for residents of western and north central Alabama, where on March 25, 2021, a weather system caused 11 tornadoes, damaging or destroying many homes. These mostly rural communities have struggled to reconstruct with limited resources, and survivors risk being forgotten. However, UMCOR is journeying with these survivors as they rebuild, many of them from scratch.
“Flooding of this kind is unique,” explains Rev. Amy Banka, pastor of Hopewell United Methodist Church near Downingtown, Pennsylvania. “Part of the reaction we were hearing from people was the grief and emotional trauma they experi enced . . . trying to get out [of their flooded homes] and hearing the cries for help from their neighbors.”
“God does God’s best work right in the middle
In Dawson Springs United Methodist Church, a structure that survived the tornado’s upheaval, Bishop Leonard Fairley of the Kentucky Conference sought to encourage survivors gathered there: “God does God’s best work right in the middle of chaos. Right in the middle of despair... there is healing.”
Funding enabled through the gifts of donors like you provides case management services to help survivors transition from the chaos of the storms toward what will be a holistic, multiyear recovery.
Hurricanes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey: Restoring homes for the least of these
On August 4, 2020, Hurricane Isaias pummeled the East Coast, causing Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River to flood and prompting evacuations among the city’s Eastwick neighborhood, a majority Black community where many residents live in a floodplain.
Less than a year after the Alabama tornados, a tremendous E4 tornado slashed a swath of destruction through western Kentucky during the night of December 10, 2021. It was the biggest and deadliest in an outbreak of torna does that caused 57 deaths in Kentucky, Tennessee and neighboring states.
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Wildfires in Colorado: From quick response to long-term recovery
“The funding from UMCOR has allowed the United Methodist church to continue to help and support our community into the recovery phases of this disaster,” says Michael Moore, recovery director for the Mountain Sky Conference. “The UMCOR funds will allow us to hire disaster case managers... [who will] help survivors define a recovery plan and walk with them in the recovery process, helping them to get the resources they need to find their new normal.”
Partnering with the Mountain Sky Conference response team, UMCOR immediately gathered and distributed mate rial donations such as fire kits and gift cards and provided emotional and spiritual care for fire survivors. Then, UMCOR transitioned its efforts to what is required after the initial state of emergency: patient, loyal support toward whole-community restoration.
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Only weeks after the Kentucky and Tennessee tornados, nature brought havoc of another kind to Boulder County, Colorado. There, the rapidly spreading Marshall Fire—the most destructive fire in Colorado history—started on the morning of December 30, 2021. By the new year, it had consumed over 6,000 acres of land and 1,084 structures.
Stories of loss from natural disasters will increase as we pro ceed through this era of extreme climate events. But stories of compassion, ingenuity and relief will increase in number, too, as people like you continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus, supporting acts of hope in a changing world. of chaos."
The flooding claimed 30 lives and damaged property on an inconceivable scale, disproportion ately affecting senior citizen and low-income households—marginalized populations that often lack the resources to rebuild. But these populations are also the focus of a robust commitment to disaster case management and recovery from UMCOR, in partnership with the Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey Conferences. Targeting the areas hardest hit by both hurricanes, a $1.8 million UMCOR grant will mobilize 500-1,000 volunteers to repair and restore damaged homes, with special attention given to low-income, senior and access- and functional-needs households in marginalized communities. At least 50 households will benefit from home repairs, and another 200 will receive the help of disaster case managers as they navigate rebuilding.
“The success of our efforts to help survivors in Ukraine shows the power of mission, the power of compassion and the power of connection,” says Rev. Corey Perry, vice president of mission and ministry for OhioHealth. “When we all work to gether toward a common purpose, we can move mountains.”
More than 50,000 pounds of these urgently needed medical supplies were delivered over the border between Poland and Ukraine. The first delivery occurred in April 2022, and the truckloads—five in total—continued to cross the border through August. Most of these supplies went to the Ukrainian Health Ministry Heart Institute in the capital of Kyiv, with some being distributed among other Ukrainian hospitals as needed.
Through the generosity of people like you, this essential support is being provided to the survivors who remain in Ukraine, bringing some hope, relief and dignity to mitigate their suffering.
“As a faith-based organization, we are working directly with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to provide monetary donations, as well as donations of medical and other supplies,” says an OhioHealth spokesperson. “Our values drive us to show compassion in times like these, and our associates have stepped up to support relief efforts through UMCOR. …We [also] continue to hold the people of Ukraine and Russia, and all who have family and friends in both countries, in our thoughts and prayers.”
UMCOR grants are helping to alleviate the suffering of Ukrainians, both those who have fled and those who remain in the country. Every day, your gifts provide transportation, food, water, clothing, shelter, medication, medical supplies, legal services and safe spaces for refu gees, families, women, children and those with disabilities.
Support for Ukrainians Continues as War Continues Not Forgotten: Ukrainians Continues War Continues
In cities such as Berehove, Kyiv and Donetsk Oblast, and in more than 120 UMCOR-supported shelters, displaced and struggling families are receiving food rations and cooking supplies, psychological services for children and materials to help them stay warm and secure as the weather grows colder and the war persists.
UMCOR is mobilizing critically needed medical supplies into the country as effectively as possible. Partnering with OhioHealth and the Arlene Campbell Humanitarian Foun dation, with coordination provided by the United Nations in collaboration with the Ukrainian government, UMCOR has helped procure more than 70,000 pounds of medical supplies worth over $1 million, including wound care/triage supplies, PPE, surgical kits and basic medicines.
Medical Supplies Continue to Move
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Ź Households in the Odessa region are receiving meals and supplies of food staples.
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Refugees seeking help in more than 120 shelters supported by GBGM/UMCOR are having their needs met.
Ongoing Ukraine response includes:
Displaced households in Mukachevo, Donetsk Oblast, Zaporozhye City and Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, have obtained food rations and cooking materials.
In the deadliest natural disaster of the year, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti’s western region on August 14, 2021, leaving more than 2,200 people dead and 12,000 injured. It was followed days later by Tropical Storm Grace, and by significant after shocks on January 24, 2022.
Ź Hospitals in Kyiv have been sent essential medical supplies.
UMCOR swiftly joined with local and international partners in Haiti to provide emergency food, shelter, personnel, hygiene and medical support, as well cash assistance programming that enabled hundreds of vulnerable households to prioritize their most urgent recovery needs. But the reach of your compassion did not end there: UMCOR has also been able to establish long-term initiatives in the region, via grants to the United Methodist Church in Haiti, by providing for six new water purifica tion plants and mobile health clinics that join with local churches to tend to vulnerable communities. Through local partnerships, UMCOR is also supporting vocational training, disaster leadership development and the provision of a new school building that will double as an evacuation center. Through the generosity of donors like you, this region is being empowered to rebuild in lasting ways, creating more opportunity for security and health to take root.
Watch the unloading of an UMCOR-provided shipment of supplies in Ukraine. Scan the QR code at right to watch.
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Support the vulnerable and those suffering in war zones. Use the reply card enclosed or visit giveumcmission.org/loveabounds
Children and their parents in shelters in Berehove, Ukraine, have access to psychological support.
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UMCOR is working with 17 partners—United Methodists throughout eastern Europe, ecumenical partners and non-governmental organizations—for the most effective local provision of transportation, medical attention, legal services, food, water and shelter.
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Although the donor’s father has passed away, the donor gave a generous gift of $100,000 to UMCOR in his mem ory and with her mother’s blessing. “We are grateful that God has blessed the hard toil, sweat and... tears my parents experienced throughout their life,” she explained in a letter to UMCOR. “What blessings have been given me, I consider myself a steward [of].”
“We believe in a God who takes what little we have to reach the multitude, and it is with that expectation of greatness that we pray for God's blessing on the efforts of Global Ministries/UMCOR in Ukraine.”
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The donor’s father, who escaped from North Korea to South Korea as a child during the Korean War, sacrificed his education in order to support his family in their new home at the tender age of 10. Many times he experienced hunger, and many times he was blessed by the generosity of a young United Methodist pastor who provided him with food. His gratitude and perseverance marked his life and motivated his generosity toward others.
The Power of One: The amazing story behind the gift
What story has motivated you to give? Share it with UMCOR so that others can be inspired! For more information, contact Tom Farley, Director of Fund Development, at (770) 625-7784, or by email at tfarley@umcmission.org.
A harrowing story of escaping North Korea inspires a gift for Ukraine
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Moved with compassion for Ukrainians whose homeland has become a war zone, one donor recently entrusted UMCOR not only with her financial gift, but also with her family’s legacy.
“I think of the many hardships Ukranians will encounter... as they try to make a new life—abruptly, without any preparation—because of war,” wrote the donor, keenly aware of those hardships because of her own father’s story. “We pray that God will bring peace to Ukraine, comfort and hope to all who find themselves foreigners, safety and healing to all who are suffering and pro tection for God's church on the ground as it helps the people of Ukraine.”
Partner with UMCOR today through a gift that will share God’s grace to the suffering and vulnerable.
How will your story join with UMCOR’s to make a difference?
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