The congregations of the Alabama-West Florida Conference have been so very generous to our neighbors affected by natural disasters this fall. The response to the Louisiana flooding was especially wonderful. Thank you for the supplies and volunteer hours you have provided.

Hurricane Matthew

North Carolina Conference

There is still an active disaster situation unfolding in the North Carolina Conference. At this time, they have not requested Emergency Response Teams (ERTs). You may send your team information for future needs to the disaster response call center at disasterresponse@nccumc.org or 888-440-9167.

South Carolina Conference

The South Carolina Conference has issued a request for Early Response Teams. Team leaders must be ERT trained. The South Carolina Conference will coordinate housing and food, but self-sufficient teams are also needed and welcome. Teams should contact 1-800-390-4911. If your team is deployed, please share your plans with the Alabama-West Florida Conference by emailing amelia@gulfshoresumc.org. 

Florida Conference 

The Florida Conference will also be requesting teams in the near future. The request for teams may be monitored on the SEJUMVIM website.

Team Reminders

Do not self deploy. A strength of our connection is that we can cooperate and respond based on need and information from local authorities and organizations. Please do not go to a disaster site until we are asked to send trained ERTs or mission teams. 

All teams should register through the conference they desire to serve. ERTs should have current badges and identification and insurance. Team leaders should send a roster of the team and destination to Amelia Fletcher, conference disaster response coordinator.

Ways You Can Help

Give generously. As always, 100 percent of our gifts to UMCOR go to those in need. Give through your local church by clearly marking checks for UMCOR Disaster Response (you may designate a specific conference on the memo line). You may also donate directly to UMCOR US Disaster Response Advance #90167 or UMCOR International Disaster Response Advance #982450. 

Assemble UMCOR Health Kits. Thanks to the generosity of many, there are adequate Cleaning Buckets (flood buckets). There is a need for Health Kits. Find assembly instructions at http://www.umcor.org/UMCOR/Relief-Supplies. 

Finally, we ask for your prayers for those who experienced loss after this natural disaster. 

UMCOR’s Disaster Response Plan for Haiti

As the humanitarian assistance agency of Global Ministries and the United Methodist Church, UMCOR is responding to the Hurricane Matthew disaster in Haiti on several levels. UMCOR has now, and has had from since the 2010 earthquake, a field office in Haiti. Azim Akhtar, UMCOR Haiti’s Head of Mission is experienced in humanitarian assistance. He and the rest of the UMCOR Haiti staff are already at work responding to this current disaster through an UMCOR grant that will provide emergency water and food rations, cooking pots, and other emergency supplies as needed.

Check www.awfumc.org in the coming days, weeks and months for updates on how we in Alabama-West Florida can respond.