Why We Won’t Go Now: How to do disaster relief work as a church
By Mitch Smith
Mitch and Noah standing in front of donations made to folks effected by flooding in Louisiana in 2016.
My relationship with disaster relief projects began in 1992. In that year, Hurricane Iniki, the largest storm in recorded Hawaiian history, hit the Island of Kauai. My dad flew to Kauai the day after the storm on a Marine Corps Super Stallion to help assess the damage. The following day, after checking me out of school, he and I flew over together. We camped in sleeping bags inside a church (much as our disaster relief team still does) and helped dig out St. George’s Episcopal Church. The purpose of our work was to help both parishioners and the church itself dig out of tremendous devastation. It was hard, hot, and dirty work, and I loved it. Since then I have worked with Episcopal Relief and Development, Baptist Ministries, Samaritan's Purse, and Team Rubicon on disaster relief ministries from Iowa to all over the Southeast.
When I came to the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, I was surprised to learn that the diocese had an Episcopal Relief and Development relief trailer. After our first disaster relief trip four years ago, we became the caretakers for said trailer. Relief ministry has changed a lot since 1992. The catalyst for this change was, of course, Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of Katrina, because work was so incredibly slow, people literally from all over the country (myself included) participated in both search-and-rescue and clean-up efforts. Since that time, national reform for disaster relief has swept through government, private, and non-profit sectors. FEMA and the National Guard changed their approach to search-and-rescue. The U.S. Attorney and State Attorney Generals put into place added consequences for things like price gouging and national non-profits changed their approaches. Also, extremely well-equipped non-profit groups like the Cajun Navy and Team Rubicon started up. In the Episcopal Church, groups like Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) were changed. Trailers like the one we have now are all over the country, allowing trained people to respond regionally to storms.
All of this is to explain why St. Martin's is not currently deploying our trailer to Louisiana. Places like Grand Isle, La., cannot at this time use our help. The work is too dangerous and requires much more equipment than what we have. The towns in Lafourche Parish are still without power. We are waiting until first responders say what is needed. If ERD asks us to come, we will put together a team. If they ask for the trailer, we will deliver it. In the meantime, here is what we are going to do.
First, we are going to focus on our Habitat for Humanity Build. We currently are using equipment from the trailer to assist a family put in contact with us by Episcopal Migration Ministries. EMM and ERD are sister agencies that often work together. We said yes to helping them. This is our current mission. Doing part of the work and stopping is a part of the very definition of toxic charity. We are currently committed.
Second, we are listening to what people on the ground are asking for! Last night I heard a report on MSNBC that the people in Louisiana had asked for supplies. About five minutes later a Facebook friend showed a picture of 10 eighteen-wheelers loaded down with said supplies leaving from a town three hours away. The danger of such reporting on a national level is people end up with too much stuff. For instance, we will not be sending water. Budweiser, The National Guard, and FEMA are doing a great job of that. The cases we could send, even if it were a truckload, would spend months and months in storage. I recall after one storm using a Bobcat to pile donated clothes into a burn pile and burning them. Well-meaning people had sent things that went from helping to hurting relief efforts. We needed the space for other things. The clothing had gotten moldy in the sun and humidity. Sadly people's offerings were in the way. They went from helping to hurting.
Third, after listening, we will find an opportunity to help. It may be through a one-on-one relationship with an affected church and their parishioners, or it may be through Episcopal Relief and Development. I am not sure where it will be, but the opportunity will present itself. We are pursuing it. In the meantime, we will keep air in the disaster relief trailer tires and the equipment in working order. It's a long hurricane season and, at some point, our role as responders for Episcopal Relief and Development will be called on again. I ask for your prayers for those digging out from Ida, for all of the first responders present, for the thousands of electrical workers doing very dangerous work, and I ask you to pray and consider if disaster relief ministry is something that you want to be a part of. It is inevitable that our trailer will be deployed again.
