June 13 Update

There still remains some cleanup and spraying for mold that we hope will be finished up mostly within the next couple of weeks, mostly in Antioch, North Nashville, and Cheatham Co. We are beginning the transition to rebuilding, which includes for me dozens of meetings across the conference helping communities set up Long Term Recovery Committees. For communities, some are beginning to connect volunteers with rebuilding opportunities where homeowners have materials, but maybe not money for labor. As we get later into the summer, more projects will begin to match donated materials and labor as well.

Our best estimate at this time would say our communities will have 2,400 families that will not recovery without significant spiritual/emotional support, financial support, donated materials, and volunteer labor. However, nearly 40,000 families have been affected in one way or another from the flooding, wind, and tornadoes of April 30-May5 across more than 28 counties in our conference. Given what we as a Conference and UMCOR have provided in the past, this need would easily mean we would be looking at needing more than a million dollars in donations and grants over 2 years. We'll have clearer picture of that as we move forward.

We have already scheduled 30+ teams from outside our conference who have already come or are on the calendar through the Spring of 2011. Some teams have already come more than once, or made plans to send rebuild teams down the road. If I get a quiet moment at Annual Conference the next couple of days, I'll try to estimate the number of volunteer hours, homes that have been assisted, etc. However, I can give you one example. Over 5 weeks time, a Holston Conference team of around 8 persons at any given time, logged nearly 1,200 hours working on dozens of homes in Smith, DeKalb, Jackson, and Clay Counties.

I'll also be trying to capture some of the reports from churches across the conference that have gone out in Christ's name to serve their neighbors. I would suspect if we can recreate it we'll see we touched lives of many thousands of families and see 10's of thousands of hours given in the effort.

We are currently scheduling local conference teams to help meet some of the remaining cleanup needs, as well as, assigning teams already "on the board" to help with those. If your church has a team that can spray for mold, do tear out, etc., for a day, week, or weekend, please contact us and we'll get you connected. For any teams within the conference or outside, we are also working to schedule rebuilding teams over the next 18 months to 2 years. Please contact us at DisasterResponse@tnumc.com to start the process.