Churches applying lessons learned, prepare for next disaster

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita swamped the Gulf Coast last year, Texas churches wanted to help, but they didn't know how. So they did what they normally do - have food and shelter ready for whoever needed it.

Now many religious leaders acknowledge their response wasn't well-organized. This time, they'll be ready.

Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, sending hundreds of thousands of Louisiana evacuees to Texas. Hurricane Rita slammed southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana just weeks later.

"I really sense that right now we are more adequately prepared than we would have been last year," said Milfred Minatrea, disaster response coordinator for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. "We have systems in place that are more effective in allowing our churches to respond than we did a year ago."

The 2.5 million-member denomination has assigned field people to coordinate with all 254 county judges in Texas, and has set up designated shelters along potential evacuation routes.

About 3 million people fled Rita when it appeared the storm would slam into Galveston and swamp Houston. The storm turned east, sparing the most populated areas, but more than 100 people died in the evacuation, many succumbing to heat exhaustion along traffic-choked and gas-deprived highways.

In the last 15 months, $5.9 million was collected in Texas Baptist churches to assist the denomination's disaster response, Minatrea said. He and other religious leaders don't expect their congregations to hold back giving - even if this season brings another devastating hurricane.

At Palmer Church in Houston, the arrival of thousands of weary and hungry Louisiana evacuees after Katrina stirred the faithful to welcome them with open arms and plates of steaming spaghetti. But initially, nobody came.

Church leaders shrugged it off as a dress rehearsal, fanned out with fliers, and more than two dozen showed up to be fed the next night.

"As far as the church, we're used to responding to disasters. We respond to tornadoes, hurricanes, fires. We have an outreach center, and we deal with everyday disasters," said the Rev. Chris Allen, pastor of Tyler Street United Methodist Church in Dallas.

Tyler Street opened up 40 beds for hurricane victims after Katrina, but only 20 were used.

"I'll tell you my speculation: the government does not quite know how to handle the separation between church and state," he said. "We're not concerned about that. We care about helping people who are in need."

Dallas housed more than 1,000 Katrina evacuees at Reunion Arena and more than 1,500 at the city Convention Center.

While looking to the future, many religious groups are still helping victims of Katrina and Rita. Tyler Street is among churches throughout the state whose summer mission trips will target the Gulf Coast.

Catholic Charities of Galveston-Houston has helped more than 74,000 people - more than 14,000 of whom have received more than $1.5 million in direct assistance, according to charity numbers.

Agencies in Houston, Tyler, Dallas and Austin have received Katrina Aid Today grants from a consortium of nine nonprofit organizations that will allow them to assist victims, assess needs and navigate through bureaucracy to get help.

Nehemiah's Vision, a nonprofit organization in Vidor that sends volunteers to help repair storm-damaged homes in Southeast Texas, still has a list of about 375 people who need help, executive director Andy Narramore said. Dozens of church groups are coming into the area to do the repairs.

Still, the organization, formed by Baptist businessmen in the region, is gearing up for the next disaster.

"There's a silent army being amassed," he said. "I think when the next event happens, there will be even more people say, 'Hey I have a place of service, there is something I can do to meet the needs of my neighbors.'"

Looks to me like the lack wasn't for organization but for advertising. If that is all this article has to supply, then it's, well, usual for AP, but also pointless. Hitting churches for having been ready and not having had people show up? This is nutsy, to say the least. One also wonders, weren't most of these people governmentally evacuated? It does also sound like it never occurred to the government types to expect churches to be ready, so they didn't even mention what they weren't even aware of.

But that would be two thoughts in a row. Tough for liberals and newspaperpeople.

My bad. (sheesh)

One also wonders, weren't most of these people governmentally evacuated?

Because Mayor White (D - Houston) HAS NO PLAN.

He was still telling Houstonians to GET ON THE HIGHWAYS at 2pm when they had already been choked for nearly 24 hours (literally, it would take 20+ hours to go 150 miles).

They woke up at 8am, went to work and realized the problems facing them.

If Houston had been adequately evacuated of Katrina evacuees, there would have been public places for RITA evacuees to stay. He did it for his re-election (and had no legitimized challengers).

Da Mayor says expect at least 48 hours to evacuate Houston.

That will not do.

While everyone does not need to leave during a hurricane (debatable), what happens if Houston's water supply is poisoned or a dirty bomb is set off? There are times when people would HAVE to leave. PS Don't try to use the "rail to nowhere". It'll just take you from one stadium to another.

In Deer Park the churches all organized so there would be no duplication of services. One church would do clothes, one would do supplies. Feeding people was rotated among the churches with the facilities large enough. It was actually amazing for them to put it together so quickly.

I am actually surprised at the BGCT response here. I am involved with the NC Baptist Men's Disaster Relief and ours is organized to the point where we can set up and serve meals anywhere, anytime on a moment's notice. We have over 140 Disaster Relief trailers throughout the state and 3 large feeding trailers. We have several trailers to ship food and supplies anywhere we need. Massive amounts of food and material was in Mississippi the day after the storms went through. Since Texas has the second highest number of Disaster Relief trailers and volunteers, I have a hard time believing they were unprepared.

The day after Katrina hit, we were set up in Meridian MS and served 21,000 meals in one day. We are still in Gulfport rebuilding, though we stopped serving meals last October. I was in Gulfport in October of last year, so I got to see the operation there first-hand. It is something to behold. We can often get into areas FEMA and othe rgovernment relief agencies cannot. Folks in need know to look for the men with the yellow hats for help!

I suspect the Al-AP writer has a distinct bias and probably took the quotes out of context or twisted them around. Texas' Southern Baptists are not incompetent at all and I suspect were quite well organized after Katrina.

This reporter has an agenda and it shows.

The churches in all the cities involved were organized to a level that was near military. In Houston, there were over 2400 churches directly involved in relief and the whole affair ran like a well oiled machine. I suspect this pastor missed out on the effort due his lack of willingness to make a few calls to the organizers.

My boots were on the ground for a good bit of this project and it was one of the most spectacular pieces of organization that I have ever seen. And the churches made it happen in under 48 hours.

Israel sent some reps over to find out how we were doing it and they were impressed right out of their shoes.

Simply astounding.

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