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Hurricane
Prep Class
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Being prepared before a hurricane hits can be a key to survival. And a Texas church is reaching out to residents with special needs—to make sure they’re not left behind when it’s time to evacuate. Reed Galin reports. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Groves, Texas)
When tropical storms swirl in the Gulf of Mexico, residents along the Texas coast begin feeling uneasy.
Carol Carpenter/Groves, Texas Resident: “Can’t change it. Might as well get used to it.”
Herb Safford/Groves, Texas Resident: “I do get concerned about it. We all do down here, it’s a natural thing.”
In an area still scarred from Hurricane Rita in 2005…
“Rita was terrible.”
…First United Methodist Church in Groves, Texas is helping members and the community become better prepared.
The Rev. Alan Van Hooser/First United Methodist Church: “We simply cannot have another hurricane come ashore in the Port Arthur-Beaumont area, and be as ill-prepared as we were last time.”
The church is holding public meetings on hurricane preparedness. Members want to make sure the most vulnerable—those with medical and other special needs—are not left behind.
Barbara Farris/Parish Nurse: “My mother-in-law, she’s in her late 70s now. And every year, she says, ‘I just hate this time of the year, because I have to fret and worry from June ‘til October.’”
Special needs can also include those who have trouble driving themselves, or those who cannot afford to evacuate. For them, the church offers gas cards.
The Rev. Alan Van Hooser/First United Methodist Church: “Hurricane preparations are more than just buying canned tuna and bottled water.”
The Rita Recovery Office operated by the Texas Annual Conference and the United Methodist Committee on Relief is still helping Gulf Coast residents, repairing more than 350 homes. Six-hundred more are on a waiting list.
(Meeting conversation) “On the contractor, what all did you, were you planning on having them do?”
And in this area where a stiff breeze can still
rattle nerves, residents say having a plan can make things easier.
Angela Baker/Rita Recovery Office: “We responded, and we’re recovering
unbelievably well. So I think this time, we’ll be even better prepared,
if there should be another time.”
TAG:
United Methodist churches in Louisiana and Mississippi are also working to improve their disaster planning after Hurricane Katrina. Church leaders say it’s not a matter of “if” another storm will hit--but “when.”
You can reach the Rita Recovery Office by calling
409- 892-0140.