Lutherans in Florida Clean Up, Offer Emotional Care

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutherans in Florida are now cleaning up
after severe thunderstorms and tornadoes swept through central
Florida Feb. 2. According to Danielle Kearney, search and rescue
efforts are complete and 20 people have been confirmed dead.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 homes were damaged and/or destroyed in
Lake, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties.
Kearney is director of church and community relations,
Lutheran Services of Florida, Inc., Tampa, and a local Lutheran
Disaster Response coordinator. Lutheran Disaster Response is a
ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Lutheran Disaster Response is "providing emotional and
spiritual care" for survivors, and "we're assembling groups to
help clean up," said Kearney. She met with faith-based and state-
government representatives Feb. 4 to put together a long-term
disaster response plan for central Florida. "Already FEMA has
received 1,100 applications from survivors for assistance," she
said.
Kearney said there have been many offers for assistance from
residents across Florida, particularly from a group of Lutheran
pastors in Tampa who offered to help clean up. "The offers for
help have been overwhelming," she said, adding that Lutheran
Haven, a retirement center in Oviedo, Fla., is providing housing
for elderly people who've lost their homes, and Lutheran
congregations are donating quilts for survivors.
"Lutheran Services of Florida will be coordinating
volunteers interested in serving the affected areas as long-term
recovery begins," reported Heather L. Feltman, executive
director, Lutheran Disaster Response. "Lutheran Counseling
Services sent a team to visit the impacted counties to begin
assessing the spiritual and emotional needs of those affected,"
she said.
There is a lot of need among survivors, as well as
rebuilding needs, said Adam J. Bost, communication specialist,
ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod, Tampa. He said there have been no
reports of severe damage to ELCA church buildings.
"I drove down Highway 441 (Feb. 3) on my way to Leesburg"
and "could not believe the devastation. The television pictures
don't quite tell the story," said Val Neuhart, The Villages, Fla.
Neuhart, who serves as synod events coordinator and
administrative assistant to the bishop, ELCA Florida-Bahamas
Synod, said "it was such an eerie sight to look east and west and
just see everything wiped out, with pieces of insulation and
other debris hanging from trees like some foreign-type moss. It
really just breaks your heart to see it up close," she said.
"I've noticed several vehicles throughout town that were
evidently damaged by the tornado. They've got blown out windows
and what looks like insulation sprayed all over them," said
Neuhart. "Please keep all of the victims in your prayers."
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DOMESTIC DISASTERS:

Editors: When listing organizations receiving funds to aid
survivors of major disasters inside the United States, Puerto
Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, please include:
ELCA Domestic Disaster Response, P.O. Box 71764, Chicago,
Illinois 60694-1764
Credit card gift line: 1-800-638-3522
Credit card gifts via Internet:
http://www.ELCA.org/disaster/ddrgive

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