Story by V. Michelle Bernard
The State of West Virginia will officially turn over a supply and distribution warehouse in Belle, W.Va., an area heavily impacted by the recent floods, to Seventh-day Adventist disaster relief teams today.
Mountain View Conference
Mountain View Conference’s Adventist Community Services (ACS) staff is actively involved in coordinating relief efforts following floods in West Virginia that killed 23 people and left thousands homeless. The team is working to organize a warehouse south of Charleston, in Belle, W.Va., where victims will receive necessary items.
Belle is about 50 miles from the site of the upcoming Best Pathway to Health event where Seventh-day Adventists from around the country will converge to offer free medical care to community members.
Larry Murphy, Adventist Community Services director for the Mountain View Conference released this update on the West Virginia flooding:
I want to thank anyone who has contacted myself or the conference office making yourselves available to aid our fellow West Virginians in this terrible time of crisis. Many families have lost homes and loved ones, and we need to keep them in our prayers.
Adventist Community Services is actively involved in the coordination of relief efforts. The need that we fill here in WV is warehouse management. All donated goods have to be organized, so that emergency managers know what they have available to help the people they serve.
At this time, it is too early for donations to be sent, or volunteer help to arrive. Search and rescue efforts are still going on and local leadership is asking everyone to wait for now. Certain trained organizations are on location, and help is being given, but everything is being coordinated through the state EOC office.
We will post updates and needs here as the information becomes available. If you have ACS training, or just want to help, please wait for a call for volunteers to be posted here on this Facebook page. Please keep not only the victims, but also the emergency workers in your prayers.
Thank you and God bless,
Larry Murphy, ACS Director
Mountain View Conference
Bob Mitchell, Potomac Conference Adventist Community Services and Disaster Relief coordinator released this statement today:
As you have probably seen on the news and weather reports, there is MAJOR flooding in West Virginia. Forty-four counties have been put under a disaster declaration. Our Columbia Union ACS DR Coordinator has been contracted by the Mountain View Conference to possibly provide trained ACS DR volunteers to serve in the process of collecting, warehousing, and distribution of emergency supplies.
Several counties in Western and Southwestern Virginia have also been flooded. Traffic on I-64 in western Virginia is being controlled by the state police.
Historia de Edwin Manuel Garcia / Photos por Toril Lavender
La Asociación de Mountain View hace frente al crecimiento inesperado de la población hispana en los pueblos rurales de West Virginia solicitando la ayuda misionera de un grupo sudamericano de cracks del fútbol.
Un mensaje grabado en el contestador automático de una pequeña iglesia de Moorefield, West Virginia, era incomprensible para sus miembros. Sin embargo, nadie lo quería borrar por si alguien, algún día, podría comprenderlo. El mensaje estaba en español, un idioma que hace diez años era poco conocido en la región de los Apalaches.