Holston Flood Relief: Where is the Money Going?

by

Holston Annual Conference | December 06, 2024

Key points:

  • Holston Conference disaster relief has $653,331 currently available to rebuild homes and communities in flood-damaged areas of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
  • Some of the money has been committed already, including for HVAC repair and replacement at Damascus United Methodist Church and for a "Rebuild Embreeville" partnership to construct three homes for flood survivors.
  • Holston churches are urged to contact Disaster Response Coordinator Dave Henderson when they send out mission teams and volunteers to rebuild homes or do other flood-relief work.
  • Donations are still needed for the long-term flood recovery. 

ALCOA, Tenn. -- More than two months after flooding related to Hurricane Helene ransacked parts of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, people have donated a total of $485,089 to Holston Conference’s flood relief fund.

An additional $184,832 is left in Holston’s disaster relief fund from previous times, which provides a total of $635,331 available so far to clean up damage, rebuild and help survivors get their lives back in order.

As of Dec. 5, donations were still coming in to Holston’s disaster relief fund. The Rev. Dave Henderson, Holston’s disaster relief coordinator, is still traveling the roads of 15 counties to see what needs to be done.

“We’re standing squarely in the middle of taking a deep breath. The chaos of the relief phase – we are past most of that,” said Henderson. “We need to look at all we’ve accomplished through the extravagant generosity of Holston Conference members and decide where we go from here.”

According to the Rev. Mike Sluder, $57,000 has been committed to replace and repair the heating, ventilation and air condition systems for flood-damaged Damascus United Methodist Church and its parsonage.

An additional $25,000 has been contributed to Rebuild Embreeville, a partnership involving six United Methodist ministries to construct three homes through Appalachia Service Project. (For more information, see below.)

About $800 was spent to replace the destroyed floor of a house outside Galax, Virginia, where four children and their parents were in desperate need, Henderson said.

Some funds were spent on training materials for 70 new “early response team” volunteers in training sessions held in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Rural Retreat, Virginia, during November.

“We have spent about $10,000 on water, bleach, flood bucket supplies, and travel reimbursement” for disaster-response workers, said Sluder, Holston connectional ministries director. “As we transition into long-term recovery, we will be using the rest and more for case management and home repair.”

Over the past two months, mission teams from the West Virginia Conference have joined with Holston Conference church members to clean out mud, gut damaged buildings, and cut and remove fallen trees in areas including Mountain City, Tennessee, and Fries, Virginia. An initial $10,000 grant from UMCOR helped kick off the effort.  

Now, the focus is on rebuilding homes and rebuilding lives and communities, Henderson said. “We are part of a collaborative effort to provide fair and equitable recovery for everyone.”

Henderson is working with county agencies and other organizations to not only set up construction projects, but also set up case management systems. Case managers will help individual flood survivors whose lives have been upended with resources such as therapy, transportation, and financial management.

“It’s a long, slow process,” said Henderson, estimating that the effort to rebuild the most damaged communities will take six years. Through an incoming UMCOR grant, Henderson will hire a disaster-relief administrative assistant to help with the work in the year to come.

In the meantime, Henderson requests that United Methodist churches in the Holston Conference keep him informed when they send out mission volunteers to help survivors and the communities afflicted by Hurricane Helene.

Part of Henderson’s job is to record volunteer hours and number of people served, which enables Holston Conference to apply for disaster relief grants, he explained. It also helps to know when church groups have plans for flood-related construction so he can avoid duplicating efforts or direct resources to other areas. To contact Henderson, write disasterresponse@holston.org.

Give to the Holston Flood Relief now.

Rebuild Embreeville

The Rebuild Embreeville Campaign is a coalition of United Methodist ministers and congregations in upper East Tennessee, partnering with Appalachia Service Project, to fund construction of three homes in Embreeville. The goal is to raise $150,000.

As of Dec. 5, the campaign had raised $125,000, said the Rev. Chris Brown, pastor at Colonial Heights United Methodist Church in Kingsport, Tenn. The $125,000 raised includes $25,000 from Holston Conference disaster relief.

“We have delivered two checks [to begin groundbreaking] and hope to knock out fundraising for the third house in the next couple of weeks,” Brown said. “Maybe even shoot for a fourth house.”

In addition to Brown and Colonial Heights UMC, coalition partners include the Rev. Jeff Wadley and Camp Bays Mountain; the Rev. Michael Lester and Jonesborough United Methodist Church, the Rev. Jodie Ihfe, the Rev. Gary Ihfe, and First (Johnson City) United Methodist Church; the Rev. Adam Love and Mafair United Methodist Church; and the Rev. Caleb Frazier and ETSU Wesley Foundation.

Make donations by check, IRA Required Minimum Distribution, or Donor Advised Fund distribution to: Colonial Heights UMC, P.O. Box 6027, 631 Lebanon Road, Kingsport, TN 37663. Or make an online gift here, choosing the “flood relief” fund in the drop-down box.

Holston Conference includes United Methodist churches in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia, with main offices in Alcoa, Tennessee. 

Annette Spence is editor of The Call, the Holston Conference source of news and stories. Sign up for a free email subscription to The Call.