An open letter to Presbyterians as Rita bears down on the Gulf coast
By Steve Bryant, September 22, 2005
As Hurricane Rita bears down on the Gulf region, Presbyterians must start thinking about our first response. Let me offer a few random observations gleaned from Katrina’s devastation of the lower half of Mississippi:
- a. A category 5 hurricane will totally wipe out telephone communications over a large area. In our case, we are still having trouble with cell and land lines over a 90,000-square-mile area. Presbyterians with mobile ham radios or satellite phones will play an important role in helping to assess conditions and urgent needs. Once the storm passes, law enforcement from around the nation will sweep in to offer much-needed help in providing for the public safety and in keeping law and order. With their own cell phones rendered useless, satellite phones will enable them to communicate needs back to their respective communities, further mobilizing relief. Survivors will need access to satellite phones to communicate with their families elsewhere.
- b. Along with medical and law enforcement personnel, counselors will be needed on the ground immediately after the passing of the storm. Survivors will need help. Three weeks after Katrina, counselors are few and far between, but urgently needed. First responders need to be self-sustained. There will be no lodging available, no food, no water, no gas, and virtually no infrastructure that a modern civilization depends upon and takes for granted. First responders must come into the affected area with 100 percent initiative. There will be no organization between relief agencies. Relief agencies themselves will not be effectively organized – not for the magnitude of destruction left in the wake of a category 5 storm. While the rest of the nation whines and complains about what government has failed to do, Presbyterians need to hit the ground ready to mobilize spontaneous relief organizations that cooperate and communicate with local law enforcement, church, municipal, FEMA, and Red Cross efforts.
- c. Just as the Synod of Living Waters has done, water purification systems will need to be installed immediately. Three weeks in, much of the lower half of Mississippi still does not have potable water. Until water purification systems can be established, boxed drinking water can be trucked in. Home Depot, for example, sells pallets of water packaged three gallons per box. An even better idea is to begin freezing gallons of potable water, leave them in your deep freeze, then place them in coolers. Flood an affected area with coolers full of block ice in gallon jugs.
- d. Initially, equipment such as generators and chainsaws will be needed in the affected areas. People need power. Doctors’ offices need power. Shelters need power. Even city and county offices will need power. A 5,500-watt generator is enough to safely power two refrigerators, a few lights, and even a very small 110-volt AC (window unit). Nothing smaller than a 10-gauge extension cord should be used, and a generator should be located safely away from a house (not inside). It is the kind of equipment necessary for survival ,but potentially fatal if misused. Drop lights (lights with a protective cage) will be very helpful. After the first eight hours of running a new generator, the oil must be changed or you risk burning up the motor. Generators burn through oil very fast, so it must be checked at least once a day. As you bring in large numbers of generators to an affected area, bring large quantities of 30w engine oil, heavy duty extension cords, drop lights, and five-gallon gas cans. Bring locks and chains for the generators and gas cans because they will be stolen. Chainsaws will also be a very valuable commodity and very dangerous. Saws should only be operated by people who know how to safely use them. Chains will dull very fast. Bars will bend. Bar oil and two-cycle engine oil will be hard to find, as will sharpening files; therefore, Presbyterians who have access to this kind of equipment (along with the accessories and replacement parts) need to be ready to flood an area once Rita passes.
- e. Government relief agencies and spontaneous church-based relief efforts will generally do a good job of getting in non-perishable food items and clothing to the affected areas. But with resources already stretched thin by Katrina, don’t depend upon the government to adequately feed people. Clothing will be sent in by churches in large quantities. Most of the clothing, however, will be old, dirty, stained, and unfit for any human being to wear, much less someone who has gone through the trauma of losing everything they own. Truckloads of dirty clothing will be dumped in large parking lots because distribution centers will not be established. They are few and far between in Mississippi. Mississippians are literally on their knees digging through a sea of dirty clothing dumped in what was once a Super Wal-Mart parking lot. Presbyterians should think in advance of better ways to provide. Let’s give Rita’s victims a little dignity. Here’s a suggestion: start preparing small boxes with a three T-shirts, a few pairs of nylon shorts, a week’s worth of underwear and socks, a personal hygiene kit and a small first aid kid. Mark the size of the items on the outside of the box (men’s XL, child’s size 8, etc.). Truck these kits into the law enforcement and military staging centers so that they can be given to survivors. This is the gospel truth: The only thing law enforcement had to give to survivors in Mississippi were hugs and body bags. Presbyterians need to equip first responders. Truck in clothing kits to churches that will be serving as distribution centers. This is a much more dignified way of providing necessities to people who are suffering.
- f. Unfortunately, a category 5 storm will wash away and/or destroy all means of transportation for survivors. Distribution centers will probably be set up at major intersections in large parking lots. People will not be able to get to the supplies because their cars are either washed away or inoperable. Semi-trucks full of bikes will help people get to the distribution centers.
- g. Law enforcement personnel native to the affected area, like everyone else, will lose everything they own, including equipment needed to perform their job. Looters will flood an area on the heels of a storm. Looters shoot guns. Salt water renders Kevlar vests useless. National Guard are not allowed to carry clips in their weapons unless martial law is in play. So, beleaguered law enforcement personnel will need rapid replacement of equipment in order to protect both the good citizens and themselves.
- h. Battery-powered radios (with extra batteries) will help survivors and law enforcement personnel stay in touch with the rest of the world.
- i. Large tarps will be needed in mass quantities to cover damaged roofs, along with roofing tacks to hold them down. Twenty-foot extension ladders will be needed for obvious reasons.
- j. Camping equipment of every variety will be urgently needed. Tents, dining/fly tents, Coleman stoves and lanterns, bug spray by the truck load. Solar showers with tarps and cord will be needed to construct outdoor bathing facilities. Hand sanitizer will be needed.
- k. Bleach by the truckload, along with mops, mop buckets, brooms, dustpans, flat shovels and heavy garden rakes will be needed in the clean-up efforts. Shopvacs (wet vacs) will be very helpful in the initial cleanup as well.
- l. Teams of resourceful, strong, and well-trained persons with survival skills need to be sent forth to hunt down needs. Send them forth in well-supplied campers so that rural areas can be scouted out quickly to assess the most urgent needs. Presbyterians on the edge of an affected area need to be ready to respond to the call for help with whatever is needed. Don’t form a committee to study the needs that are encountered. Just meet them. Don’t develop a level of bureaucracy between your resources and their need. Just get the help there as quickly as possible with no strings attached.
The name “Katrina” means purification. That is precisely what Katrina has done for the Presbytery of Mississippi. Her destruction has purged us of division, and purified our missional focus. The only thing that really matters right now in the Presbytery of Mississippi is serving Jesus Christ by meeting genuine human needs. Naively, I hoped that Katrina would do the same for our denomination. God placed before us a moment of opportunity – to finally find the peace, unity and purity of a single purpose; a higher and purer calling, serving Christ by meeting genuine human needs. PDA and our denominational leadership failed to seize the moment and the purity has passed them by.
Another storm is coming. For God’s sake, please do a better job helping Rita’s victims than has been done thus far for Katrina’s victims. And if by God’s grace you have another opportunity to shift our denomination’s ridiculous focus on human sexuality to the higher, purer and unifying calling of serving the Lord Jesus Christ by meeting genuine human needs, don’t be so foolish again to let the moment pass you by.
I’ll finish the alphabet later and I’ll end with a plea for prayer. Pray for Mississippi. Pray for Louisiana. Pray for whoever is the path of Rita. If you live in the projected path, do not stay another minute. God forbid that there will ever be another storm like Katrina. But if there is, God’s truth is still this: “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”
The Rev. Steve Bryant is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Vicksburg, Miss.