Flood waters from hurricane Florence continue to rise and are devastating areas in North and South Carolina. The Rev. Jason Collins, Rector of St. Paul’s, Conway, (who sent the photo on this page) wrote, “We have a HUGE mess here. The local Emergency Management Office estimates about 1,000 homes in Conway and 10,000 homes in Horry County will likely flood before this is over. The Waccamaw River hasn’t crested in Conway yet. Please pray for the Lord to move this water out of here (without flooding Georgetown).”
Stephen Haynsworth, the new diocesan Disaster Preparedness and Relief Director, is coordinating volunteers and donations of relief supplies and care bags.
Haynsworth asks each church wanting to help to designate one person to coordinate efforts at that church. The church coordinator should then visit www.adpr.faith to register his or her team.
What Can You Do?
- Pray for all those affected as well as for first responders and relief workers.
- Contribute financially to an organization providing relief. Two groups we are working with are Anglican Disaster Preparedness and Relief and Anglican Relief and Development.
- Organize the assembly of care bags from your church.
- Organize a team of volunteers from your church for relief work.
- Donate to Hurricane Relief
As of mid-day Monday, September 17, we have heard from all of the churches in our Diocese and, thankfully, none have reported any major damage from hurricane Florence. Trinity Church in Myrtle Beach suffered minor damage when some roof tiles were lifted, but that is being repaired now. A few congregations have reported minor flooding and some parishioners are moving to higher ground before rivers crest. Most of us are grateful that Florence did not reach the level feared in the forecasts—at least for most in South Carolina.
That said, the hurricane has wreaked havoc for some residents in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina and in eastern North Carolina. Bishop Lawrence has noted that the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas has two parishes in and close to the heavily affected portion of North Carolina, Grace Church in New Bern and Christ Church in Little Washington. He has suggested that any relief efforts our congregations or parishioners want to assist with in the affected communities be coordinated with and carried out in concert with them.
Also we have been in touch with several organizations that are on the ground assessing damage and we will be sending relief supplies with a team to the region as soon as the roads are open and the dangers of rising floodwaters have passed.
We will provide further updates on issues in the affected areas as they become available.
Financial contributions to the Anglican Relief and Development (ARDF) “Hurricane Florence Relief” may be made by clicking the button below.