Dear friends in Christ,
It has been another "interesting" week of
weather across Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. It rained--it rained very
hard and the wind blew--sometimes very hard!! In some places, the water
levels went back up and stymied emergency response efforts. In other
places, the tough and grueling work of debris pickup and mucking out
continued. Since last August, the definition of disaster has been
reshaped in my memory many times. Even the term "bubbler" has taken on
new and negative connotations. However, there is light on the edge of
the horizon. Many thanks to all those congregations who have or who are
in the midst of the flood bucket brigade. We are to the point of halting
those productions so I am asking that you finish those buckets that you
are presently working on. It is hard to gauge the long-term need of
them, but it looks like there is enough for right now. I have had
reports in the last two days of need in Spring Green and in Walworth
County for flood buckets. Please call those centers to confirm that
need. Again, I have included the latest
situation report for you to
share, along with a
listing of the
disaster recovery centers, and a website where you can go to receive the latest updates.
If you do not already receive daily FEMA situation
reports, you can find them here (
http://www.fema.gov/emergency/reports
).
What Lutherans Can Do
At this time, the primary need in this response continues to be
financial donations. With the water still high in parts of Wisconsin and
Iowa, making additional flooding a possibility, the work of cleaning-up
and rebuilding may still take some time to begin. There are bulletin
inserts (
http://www.elca.org/disaster )
(right-hand column) for both flooding and tornadoes, or people can give
directly through LDR (
http://www.ldr.org/donate ).
For links to State sponsored pages with information about local
volunteer efforts, visit the Midwest alert page on the LDR website here:
(
http://www.ldr.org/alert/index.html ).
For groups outside the region with access to volunteer teams or who is
receiving inquiries about volunteering, the message at this point is
still that we are in a holding pattern. There will be volunteer needs
for clean up and rebuilding in the affected areas, but more time is
needed to coordinate work. Any outside groups that are preparing to
volunteer should know that they will be expected to be as
self-sufficient as possible.
People locally remain very interested and
committed to responding. If you like muck out and clean up, there is a
place for you. 211 or any of the disaster response centers can help you
with that. There is a growing concern over whether food pantries have
been depleted to the point where food drives need to take place. Contact
your local food pantry about this.
A final thought, based upon Psalm 23, by an unknown poet.
In pastures green?
Not always; sometimes he
Who knoweth best in kindness leadeth
me
In weary ways, where heavy shadows
be.
And by still waters? No, not always
so;
Ofttimes the heavy tempests round me
blow;
And o'er my soul the waves and
billows go
And when the storm beats loudest and
I cry
Aloud for help, the Master standeth
by
And whispers to my soul, Lo, it is
I!"
Above the tempest wild I hear him
say,
"Beyond the darkness lies the perfect
day.
In every path of thine I lead the
way."
It's Friday now, and there are fish to
fry. More next week.
Pastor Gary A. Grindeland
Vice President of Church & Community
Relations
State Coordinator for Lutheran
Disaster Response
Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin
& Upper Michigan, Inc.
647 W. Virginia St., Suite 300
Milwaukee, WI 53204-1535
O) 414/325-3012
F) 414/325-3124
C) 414/659-4327
ggrindeland@lsswis.org
