United Methodists Mobilize to Help Wildfire Victims Recover

In the Church

UPDATE March 25: Rosemary Prumer of the Northwest Texas Annual Conference reported that local church disaster coordinators have been in contact with the emergency disaster coordinators in the Texas Panhandle. She said the conference is waiting to hear their assessments of need in order to select priorities for distribution of church funds. Local communities have sent fencing and hay along with communities outside the Northwest Texas conference. Other conferences in Texas have sent money.

"We only lost 10 structures in the Dumas and Perryton fire because that area is sparsely populated, but we did lose cattle and fences," Ms. Prumer said in a voicemail. In addition, the United Methodist pastor in McLean, Texas, Thacker Haynes, held the service for Cody Crockett, one of the four fire victims in the Texas Panhandle, she said.

Pastor Haynes told ABC-Channel 7 in Amarillo, Texas, that two of the victims of the LeFors East fire, Cody Crockett and his girlfriend, Sydney Wallace, regularly attended McLean United Methodist Church. Haynes told ABC 7 News: "Cody has always been a cowboy, all his life. From the time was little bitty riding the horse...I baptized him and his little sister several years ago in a pond on my ranch."

ORIGINAL STORY BEGINS HERE

United Methodists are following up on massive wildfires that struck eastern Colorado, western Kansas, and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas in early March, killing six people, thousands of livestock and burning a million acres of the Southern Plains in the United States.

In some instances, entire herds of livestock – a ranch’s total livelihood – were wiped out by the unprecedented wildfires, which generated gusts of searing wind reaching 60 to 80 miles per hour, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. “At those speeds, the livestock and wildlife were helpless to outrun the fire. Many burned to death on the spot,” reported the Gizmodo website.

The New York Times reported that the wildfires had burned a combined million acres of ranchland on the southern Plains, with some ranchers calling the conflagrations “our Hurricane Katrina.” For some ranchers, their first acts after the fire was to load their rifles and euthanize the livestock that somehow had survived with fire despite horrific injuries.

Here’s the latest on how United Methodists are helping with recovery.

Colorado

The Rev. Gary Haddock, disaster coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference, told United Methodist Insight that the conference initially sent clean-up buckets to the eastern Colorado area affected by the wildfires. Three homes were destroyed in the blaze, along with some outbuildings. Rev. Haddock said a conference representative is checking to see what other recovery needs victims in the region may have.

Kansas

United Methodists in the Great Plains Annual Conference, which includes Kansas and Nebraska, are responding “with prayer, financial help and hands-on labor,” according to a report by conference communications coordinator David Burke.

The wildfire burned 600,000 acres, with more than 500,000 of those in Clark and Comanche counties, Burke reported. The March 6-8 blaze has been termed the largest wildfire in Kansas history, spreading to as many as 23 counties.

The Rev. Hollie Tapley, Great Plains Conference disaster relief coordinator, told Burke that “financial aid has been given to several families in Clark, Ford and Reno counties.”

In an email to United Methodist Insight, Rev. Tapley wrote: “It has been a very tough journey for these homeowners. These families have lost everything, from their homes and cattle, down to the fences that enclosed their property. The stories of escape will curl your hair and send chills up your back! Some narrowly escaped as fire was rolling up over their vehicles, and as they said, ‘I just floored it and hoped to get out alive.’

“The Great Plains Annual Conference Disaster Response Ministry has been on the ground from the beginning. Over eight counties reporting, 39 homes were destroyed, five homes received major damage, one home with minor damage, and 13 homes were affected. Great Plains Disaster Response has and will continue to provide financial support and volunteers for debris clean-up.”

Of the 39 homes destroyed, some 30 were homes around Ashland, Kansas, the Rev. Rick Branson, pastor of Ashland UMC, told communicator David Burke. One of those ranches belonging to Ashland parishioners Mark and Eva Gardiner lost “thousands and thousands of cattle,” the pastor said.

To donate to recovery efforts, make checks payable to the Great Plains Annual Conference, and mail to P.O. Box 4187, Topeka, KS 66604. In the memo line of the check, write #975, Disaster Response Fund.

Oklahoma

Laverne, Okla., was one of the worst-hit areas, according to reports from the Oklahoma Annual Conference. Conference communicator Holly McCray cited the Rev. Stephen T. Hale, senior pastor of Laverne UMC, and Tom Fanning, a member of that church, as “key people on the ground” during and since the disaster.

In a telephone interview while he was on the road to a meeting, Rev. Hale told United Methodist Insight that as of March 23, most of the recovery activities are still being set up by state agriculture officials and other organizations.

“The fires are out now,” Rev. Hale said. “We lost just three homes here, but we lost thousands of cattle. One bivocational United Methodist pastor I know told me he lost 150 head – half his herd. State agriculture will pay only $400 to $500 a head for cattle worth $2,000 a head. It’s a terrible loss.”

The emotional toll of the disaster is beginning to hit some people hard, the pastor continued.

“It’s pretty traumatic,” Rev. Hale said. “I’m a certified spiritual counselor for disasters, and we’re seeing people with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and people pushing others away when they try to help.

“One man who lives on a farm volunteers on two fire departments because he lives halfway between the towns. He was one of two firefighters that halted a wave of fire across the street from a woman’s house in Englewood, Kansas, just up the road from Laverne. Two Sundays ago, it hit him hard; he just had a meltdown after worship.”

Rev. Hale stressed that the region’s farmers and ranchers are deeply grateful for the tons of hay that have been contributed “from all around the country, really” to feed their surviving livestock. “We just can’t thank them enough.”

Right now, the most urgent need is for money to help replenish supplies and equipment for local fire-fighting companies, and to help buy replacement fencing, the pastor said.

“We don’t need clothes,” Rev. Hale emphasized. “If you have extra clothes, sell them at a garage sale and send us the money. It costs $10,000 a mile to put up new fencing, and we probably won’t qualify for FEMA money [Federal Emergency Management Administration].”

Those outside Oklahoma who wish to contribute can make checks payable to First United Methodist Church-Laverne, and mail them to the church at P.O. Box 612, Laverne, OK 73848-0612.

Texas

The Daily Yonder, a website devoted to rural issues, reported, “The conditions that led to devastating wildfires in the Southern Great Plains are consistent with weather patterns highlighted in a 2015 USDA report that looked at how growing seasons and the predictability of weather are changing around the United States.” Another site, Amarillo.com, reported 478,935 acres had burned in the fires according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. Four people, including a young couple and their friend trying to save livestock, were killed in the Texas fires.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor and Founder of United Methodist Insight.