Teams Arrive to Help with Hurricane Cleanup in Holston Conference

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Disasters and Climate Change

Holston Annual Conference | Oct. 17, 2024

ALCOA, Tenn. – Holston Conference disaster-relief workers have handed out about 5,000 buckets full of cleaning supplies since the remnants of Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of the southeastern U.S. in late September.

With the help of other groups, Holston Conference has also sent early-response teams to three flooded towns in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.  

Based in Alcoa, Tennessee, the Holston Conference office has so far received $150,000 in financial donations and a $10,000 grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). An additional $100,000 in UMCOR aid is expected soon, said the Rev. Mike Sluder, Holston connectional ministries director.

Multiple local churches and other United Methodist annual conferences sent work teams, water, cleaning and hygiene supplies over the past three weeks. Now, Holston Conference is modifying the list of requested items by eliminating bottled water, for example, and adding work gloves, rubber gloves, and bleach.

Holston is also trying to get more work teams to flood-damaged areas as soon as county emergency leaders give the go-ahead, said the Rev. Dave Henderson, disaster-relief coordinator.

“The county EMAs [emergency management agencies] were caught off guard. They’ve never handled anything vaguely like this,” Henderson said. “The numbers of people needing help are overwhelming, and some counties don’t know how to handle it yet.”

Some progress has been made. The West Virginia United Methodist Conference sent teams that have been working in Mountain City, Tennessee, and Damascus, Virginia. While lodging at First United Methodist Church in Mountain City, a chainsaw team from West Virginia helped members of that church and also Trade United Methodist Church remove fallen trees from their properties.

Another West Virginia Team helped local volunteers clean up flooded Damascus United Methodist Church and the parsonage. The team stayed at an Appalachian Trail hostel owned by the church, Henderson said.

Currently staying at First United Methodist Church in Mountain City is a 20-member team from Inspiritus Disaster Response, a Lutheran group, working with the county EMA to clean up flooded homes.

In Pulaski, Virginia, a work team from International Orthodox Christian Charities is cleaning up homes, aided by volunteers from local United Methodist churches. The guest team is lodging at Aldersgate United Methodist Church.

Henderson is making plans for more West Virginia teams to work at Camp Dickenson, Fries United Methodist Church, and a few homes, all in Fries, Virginia.

Henderson is also scheduling training sessions for United Methodists in Holston Conference who want to participate in cleanup efforts. Soon to be announced, training will be led by the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference and will be held in November at two sites, one in Knoxville and another in Holston’s New River District.

The list of needed items requested of Holston churches is being modified as the relief effort progresses. “We have plenty of drinking water on hand now and need to stop collecting it,” Henderson said. He expressed appreciation to the thousands of church and community members who sent water to help flood survivors whose water sources were compromised after the storm.

With the help of the West Virginia Conference and Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, Holston also provided more than 5,000 “cleaning kits” (also known as flood buckets) to flood survivors. At about $75 per flood bucket, the value of the cleaning kits alone is at least $375,000.

The need for cleaning kits and hygiene kits in flooded communities of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia has lessened, Sluder said. Holston has now adequately replenished its disaster-relief stockpiles.

However, Sluder asked churches to continue to collect cleaning kits and hygiene kits to help supply UMCOR Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, Louisiana. Sager Brown is now running low on disaster-relief supplies as UMCOR assists other states recovering from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

In addition, church and community members are asked to collect work gloves, rubber gloves, and bleach for upcoming cleanup work.

“Our next problem is, it’s getting colder and many folks have no heat because they have no power,” Henderson said. The Holston needs list will soon reflect supplies to help survivors in cooler weather. (Visit Holston.org for updates.)

As the Holston flood relief fund reached $150,000 on Oct. 15, Sluder said he hopes the fund will continue growing. “As we transition to recovery and rebuilding, we’ll go through those funds pretty quickly,” he said.

On Oct. 7, Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett visited flood-damaged areas in Newport, Tennessee; Greeneville, Tennessee; Embreeville, Tennessee; and Damascus, Virginia. She sent her thanks to members of both Holston Conference and West Virginia Conference for their generosity.

“You are much appreciated as you serve as Christ’s hands and feet,” said Wallace-Padgett, who leads both the Holston and West Virginia Conferences.

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. This article is republished with permission from the conference website.