Church helps families living paycheck-to-paycheck after Wilma

Mounds of sand are piled up in the middle of the street by city workers in Key West, Fla. The sand covered the street as a result of Hurricane Wilma which hit Florida on October 24. A UMNS photo courtesy of Jocelyn Augustino, FEMA
Nov. 11, 2005



By Nancy E. Johnson*



WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (UMNS) - An assembly line formed in the four-bay garage of United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches. Flood buckets filled with supplies passed from one hand to the next.

"Just keep swinging," volunteers called.

The high winds and heavy rains Hurricane Wilma brought Oct. 24 are gone, but the devastation remains. In Palm Beach County, hundreds of thousands of people lost power. Many have been turning to ministries and churches such as the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches for help.

"It's the ones who live paycheck to paycheck, and they can't go back to work because work is gone or doesn't need them - those are the ones that are really hurting and depend on us to get by," said the Rev. David McEntire, pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches.

The West Palm Beach church is one of many United Methodist congregations in the denomination's Florida Annual (regional) Conference responding to the disaster - in many cases as they recover from the storm themselves. Members have left their own desperate situations behind and volunteered to help others.

For some, that has meant doing kitchen duty. On a Saturday afternoon nearly a week after the storm hit, the aroma of chicken, rice and jambalaya filled the fellowship hall. It was the first hot meal many of the hurricane survivors had eaten in a long time.

"A lady came in to eat a meal. She was standing in line crying," McEntire said. "She said she'd been eating crackers for four days. She was dressed nice and looked like she should have the wherewithal to do it, but she ran out of food."

The church served more than a thousand hot meals that day. Volunteers filled 500 bags with nonperishable food for families. Angela Ligonde is a Riviera Beach resident who stopped by to feed her family.

"No grocery stores are open in Riviera. There's no power. We have nothing," Ligonde said. "I have five kids, so anything I can get to help my kids helps."

Winford Wilhoit lives in a mobile home at Lakeside of the Palm Beaches. He showed up at the church for a hot meal. He reported that Wilma flattened at least 75 of the 300 mobile homes in his community but spared his.

"Some of the older homes, (Wilma) just split them open like a can opener. Some people ain't got nothing. ... But I appreciate the help," Wilhoit said.

A quick drive through the Palm Beaches revealed a community ravaged by Wilma. At Christian Manor nursing home, the storm peeled off the roof and crushed two cars in the parking lot. The nursing home lost power for five days, so United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches prepared meals for the 125 residents.

The church building suffered only minor damage, with a few tiles coming off the roof, but next door, Wilma demolished City Furniture's warehouse showroom. McEntire believes his church was spared for a reason.

"The utilities at our church were turned on by the second day in Frances, Jeanne and now Wilma. That's unusual, but it allowed us to get up and running to help people," McEntire said.

Church teams are putting tarps on damaged homes and clearing fallen trees, and members distributed clothes left over from a rummage sale to needy families.

Donna Luther is a church volunteer who's been unloading trucks and serving meals. "We have no power, so we can sit at home and do nothing or (we can) help," she said.

Church member Luciana Dearaujo is also using his talents to serve. His construction job is on hold because of the storm's aftermath, but he has volunteered to cut trees and clear branches. He believes the relief effort at United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches is a blessing for those who need the help and those who give it.

"When people come looking for help, they help my spirit," Dearaujo said. "It gives me the amazing feeling of serving. It makes me feel good."

People interested in helping with recovery and cleanup can contact the Florida Annual Conference's Storm Recovery Center at (800) 282-8011, Ext. 149, or stormrecovery@flumc.org.

Donations can be sent to the United Methodist Committee on Relief and designated for UMCOR Advance No. 982523, "Hurricanes 2005 Global." Contributions can be made online at http://www.methodistrelief.org, at local churches or by phone at (800) 554-8583. Checks given at local churches should be made payable to the local church. Contributions mailed to UMCOR at P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068 should be made payable to UMCOR.

*Johnson is a Florida-based, freelance television and print journalist. This story was provided by e-Review Florida United Methodist News Service.