Hurricane assistance arriving on two fronts
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Even as Church members in Florida and Alabama were finishing final cleanups following Hurricane Dennis, their counterparts in Mexico's Yucatan region were beginning to access the damage caused by Hurricane Emily.
While folks in both regions wish the storms had passed them by entirely, good news could be found.
- Hundreds of Church members from the American Southeast Area converged
July 16-17 on Florida's Panhandle and in Atmore, Ala., to help fellow
members and neighbors with the exhausting toil of patching roofs and
clearing felled trees.
"Our clean-up went very well . . . we had two good days of work," said Pensacola Florida Stake President Mark Daniels.
Many of the volunteers who traveled to help in the Pensacola region focused their energy on assisting elderly and disabled hurricane victims. Even as the final branches were being removed, life was returning to normal in Florida.
Meanwhile, more than 500 LDS volunteers from Mississippi and several stakes in Alabama spent a sweltering weekend lending help in Atmore. Mobile Alabama Stake President Harlan Spencer estimates 98 percent of the people served by LDS workers were not members of the Church.
"We don't know how many trees have been cut and yards have been cleared," said President Spencer, adding the Church has fed more than 1,000 families since Dennis hit.
Many of Atmore's hurricane victims learned of the Church for the first time last weekend when LDS work crews showed up at their homes and began tarping roofs and clearing out fallen brush and trees. One beneficiary of the volunteer effort told President Spencer that his new LDS friends accomplished in a few hours what he guessed would take months to accomplish on his own.
"This has been an incredible experience," said President Spencer. He remains touched by the generosity of so many Church members, including the young folks from the Huntsville Alabama Stake who canceled their summer youth conference so they could volunteer with the Atmore project.
- Hurricane Emily destroyed four LDS homes on the Mexican island of
Cozumel when it reached land July 17. There were no reports of injury to
Church members and all missionaries were accounted for, said Steve
Peterson, the Church's director of temporal affairs in Mexico.
At press time, priesthood leaders had not made contact with branch members in Tulum, a coastal town that lost power and phone service when Emily arrived.
Despite the damage, welfare leaders say Church members fared reasonably well throughout the hurricane-vulnerable Yucatan Peninsula. The families that lost their homes in Cozumel were already beginning the work of rebuilding with Church-donated materials and labor.
No Church buildings in the area suffered damage outside of uprooted trees and bushes. One LDS meetinghouse in Cancun was opened to stranded American tourists unable to leave the popular tourist destination.
The hurricane did interrupt shipments of food and water from the Mexican mainland to Cozumel, so members there relied on personal food storage to satisfy immediate needs.
"Our (Cozumel) members have been quite prudent," Brother Peterson said. "Most had some sort of food and water stored and are sharing with others."
While Church humanitarian assistance in Mexico will likely be limited to fast offerings to cover immediate needs, Brother Peterson said Hurricane Emily could have a long-term impact on many members. The local economy in the Cancun region is fueled by tourism. Many service-related jobs could be lost if the stream of tourists into the Yucatan is disrupted by hurricane fears.
E-mail to: jswensen@desnews.com
