Hurricane Katrina Relief

On August 29th, the Category 4 Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States, bringing extremely high winds, torrential rain, and in places a twenty-foot storm surge. Four weeks later, Hurricane Rita hit the Gulf Coast just west of Katrina's landfall, extending the damaged area and hampering recovery efforts.

The cities of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Biloxi, Mississippi, suffered extraordinarily heavy damage. New Orleans, which lies below sea level, was flooded throughout three-quarters of its area. Portions of East Biloxi, where the United Church of Christ's Back Bay Mission has served the city's poorest residents for nearly eighty years, has had entire neighborhoods completely leveled. Hundreds of thousands have evacuated; many of these have lost their homes and livelihoods permanently. The Connecticut Conference must respond.

Based on the ideas contributed at a gathering on September 7th, the Connecticut Conference has selected six focus areas for its relief efforts:

• We will support Back Bay Mission in its efforts to serve the desperate needs in Biloxi, MS, despite the devastating blow dealt to its own resources. On September 8th, the Board of Directors voted to recommend a $1,000,000 goal to the Conference for inclusion in the Capital Campaign for Silver Lake, due to be placed before Conference delegates at the October Annual Meeting.
• We will support Housing and Shelter efforts for the survivors.
• We will develop relationships with a Partner Church or churches in the affected area, so that they may have additional resources to meet the needs they are best placed to identify and serve. On September 8th, the Conference Board of Directors voted to partner with Central Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, of New Orleans, LA, and its pastor, the Rev. Wilmer Brown. The Conference will:
  • hold the church, its pastor and members in prayer;
  • assist the church with its rebuilding;
  • support the pastor who is currently without income and benefits as a result of the flood;
  • help the members of the church rebuild their lives and homes;
  • and continue in a longterm partnership that we trust will be mutually enriching and deeply shared.
• We will strive to coordinate Work Teams from our local congregations to address the rebuilding needs from Katrina when the area can accept them, and encourage teams to work in other storm distressed areas (such as Florida) at the present.
• We will Advocate for the needs of the most distressed and oppressed with government and social agencies.
• We will Raise Funds for the aid of the survivors here in the nation's wealthiest state per capita.

We have begun to assemble lists of volunteers and their skills. We will shortly make a sign-up form available at this site.