This volunteer cook is known as "Queen Burger."
Photo: Patsy Lynch, FEMA

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance continues to follow the needs from Hurricane Dolly in Texas. Hurricane Dolly slammed into the south Texas/north Mexico coast Wednesday afternoon (July 23, 2008) as a Category 2 with winds of 100 mph and very heavy rainfall. 

PDA National Response Team (NRT) member Harvey H. Howell, an Elder at First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio and director of First Presbyterian’s Emergency Response Task Force, has been closely monitoring the impact of Hurricane Dolly on the region and has been providing guidance to Mission Presbytery’s response. 

In a meeting facilitated by Howell, representatives of the twenty-one Presbyterian Churches of the Valley Cluster of Mission Presbytery met with presbytery staff and First Presbyterian San Antonio to organize the Mission Presbytery Hurricane Dolly Task Force (MP-HDTF) to help with the response. 

Accomplishments and response to date includes:

• Affirmation of the witness of the Holy Spirit at work through Tom Brownmiller and the Mission Presbytery Hurricane Dolly Task Force (MP-HDTF).
• Sharing the love and concern of the national PC(USA) church during a bilingual worship service with a primarily Spanish-speaking Presbyterian congregation.
• Providing pastoral care over lunch to Pastor Tom Johnson and family, whose vacation time was canceled due to the needs of his congregation and community.
• Demonstrating a commitment to extend the hand of Christ to serve the “least of us” through PDA-NRT Spanish-speaking member Santana-Rivera.
• Developing multiple training resources in Spanish for long term recovery (LTR), including translation of Community Arise Lesson 3 (Managing Volunteers in Disaster.)
• A coordinated strategy for long-term recovery (LTR) organizing with FEMA and Susan Hellums of the United Methodists.
• Developing and recruiting LTR members.
• Identifying and connecting resources to ongoing disaster response unmet needs.
• Began organizing a case work management strategy for Spanish-speaking population.
• Providing PDA resources to the MP-HDTF, including Light Our Way NVOAD books, PDA volunteer work team t-shirts, PDA flash drives with Community Arise and additional training resources and PDA wrist bands.