Disaster Ministries: 

Disasters happen but being prepared for them makes recovery far easier. Here are two resources every local church should know about.

 

In order for a local church to plan their own disaster plan go to www.ucc.org/oghs/national/ and look for Local Church Disaster Planning. This is a complete guide for a local church to create their own plan

 

When disaster strikes our neighbors, how do we help? Training is the key. Local church teams of disaster responders may self-train by using the new online resource created for this purpose. It is a step-by-step training manual; www.communityarise.com/index.htm.

 

If you have a trained team that is able to respond to a disaster event, let me know and I will connect them to the right people in order to go to work where needed.

 

Gerald Bertsch

gwbertsch@charter.net

920-287-7137

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Update on Wisconsin Flooding

Thanks to the leadership of Deb Burich, a team is in the field doing cleanup work as I write this piece.  There is enough work for many more teams to deploy to recovery zones.   

Affected communities have Volunteer Services agencies that are coordinating volunteer efforts. 

We had three congregations directly hit by the flooding--Trinity UCC in LaCrosse, Olivet Congregational UCC, Columbus and Church of Peace UCC, Fond du Lac (to a lesser degree, Pilgrim UCC in Fond du lac, too ).  All four received grants from the Wisconsin Conference in an aggregate amount of $3,000 and three of them received $5,000 from the Disaster Ministries Office of the UCC.   

In addition the Disaster Ministries Office sent 6,000 personal protection suits, breathing apparatus, and gloves for use in Wisconsin in the clean up efforts and did so in cooperation with and on behalf of Church World Service.  These funds came from special flood relief offerings in the Conference and from One Great Hour of Sharing offerings 

A special word of gratitude is also directed toward all the sister churches of the Northeast Association that participating in restocking the Fond du Lac food pantry effort hosted and spearheaded by Church of Peace UCC (Jim Martin and Jenny Dawson, Pastors).  Thank you. 

The long range recovery efforts are only now beginning with the formation of Long Range Recover Committees in each of the affected regions.  They will be looking for representation from supporting groups and churches.  If anyone is interested in serving on a Long Range Recovery Committee, let me know at gwbertsch@charter.net.   

FEMA has now put nearly 30,000 applications for aid into circulation in Wisconsin and the Small Business Administration has around 20,000 in circulation.  These are due to be returned to these two agencies in early August or the period of eligibility will have expired. 

Just because the rains have stopped doesn't mean the crisis is over.  It takes up to two years for the long range recovery efforts to be completed, but even that doesn't mean that the people that suffered the loss of their home and belongings have recovered.  Our prayers need to be accompanied with fund raising and direct action.

Rev. Gerald Bertsch

Wisconsin Conference Disaster Ministries Team Leader and the Northeast Wisconsin Association Disaster Ministries Coordinator. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Donations sent to the Wisconsin Conference office will be distributed to our own congregations that need them and for their ministries in the affected areas and to replenish emergency funds that are drawn on when events like this occur. Additional funds are sent to the national UCC offices to help with wider relief and recovery efforts.

Volunteers are still needed to help with work in many communities. Contact our conference disaster response coordintor, Rev. Gerald Bertsch (920-287-7137 or email him), to learn when and where volunteer help can be useful.

Here's a message from Rev. Bertsch:
There is an urgent need for UCC "response teams" in the Conference who can go out to places where they are needed. The best kinds of teams are the ones that are organized at the local church level, have a clear mission, and can be ready to go on short notice. A sample of the kinds of jobs that need doing are:
1. Mucking out basements.
2. Delivering/transporting clean up kits or health safety supplies to protect volunteers, who are doing hazardous duty, to disaster sites from storage sites.
3. I need the name and email of the team leader for each of these teams so that I can know who's organized and ready, trained, so that I call them out directly.

Prayers can help sustain those suffering from the afteraffects of the flood and those trying to assist in the recovery. Please include their needs in your personal and your congregational prayers.

Local church plan
Friends, Over these years we have shared information with each other, and you have worked in your Conference to develop disaster plans for local churches. I have recently received some individual requests for a local church plan. With the help of our UCC Florida Conference and ecumenical colleagues, I have put together a sample of a local church plan – this is a guideline to be adapted to individual needs. Link: http://www.ucc.org/oghs/national/ Peace, Florence

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE FLOODS
(These come from Rev. Gerald Bertsch, our disaster response coordinator.)

1.  The Midwestern June floods now rival in size the damage done by Katrina.
 
2.  The flood related damage in Wisconsin is as great as that in Iowa although Iowa has received greater press coverage.  That difference in media may be due to the fact that the flooding in Wisconsin had multiple locations (30 counties).
 
3.  24,000 FEMA applications are out and about 14,000 SBA but in both cases they are slow to be returned.  Its urgent to remind people with these applications in their possession to return them completed immediately.
 
4.  All totaled there will eventually be about 17 emergency aid centers operation throughout Wisconsin and some of them mobile units.  Every County's Emergency Government office will know where theirs is located.
 
5.  Appeals for volunteers are now coming in daily as its only now that the receding flood waters are allowing mucking out and mold remediation to begin.  If you and your group hasn't yet found yourselves organized enough to go out, don't despair, there's still plenty work. I can help match work sites with work groups.

Disaster Response Ministry Team


The Wisconsin Conference United Church of Christ has orgnized a Disaster Response Ministry throughout the state. The Association coordinators of the Disaster Response Ministry Team are:

NORTHEAST: Rev. Gerald Bertsch, 920-287-7137
NORTHWEST: Alecia Neuroth and Justin Pluess, 715-424-2989
SOUTHEAST: Lois Buccholz, 414-425-1538 (h), 414-220-7983 (o)
SOUTHWEST: Rev. Charles Wolfe, 608-249-1537