Hurricane Sally is slated to make landfall at some point tomorrow. It is a remarkably slow-moving storm and causes concern for historic flooding and storm surge. The Alabama-West Florida Conference is already staging relief support prior to the storm’s arrival in the following ways:
-Our Director of Disaster Response, Rev. Chris Ackerman, continues his outstanding work and has gained a tremendous amount of experience from Hurricane Michael. He has worked with the Disaster Response Warehouse in Decatur, AL, to obtain 500-700 cleaning buckets. As soon as trucks are allowed to enter areas in need, they will be distributed.
-Several conference disaster response trailers have been cleaned, inspected and are ready for immediate deployment.
-The district disaster response coordinators have been working closely with our conference emergency response teams to be on alert for damage assessments. If needed, this team will stay in close contact with conference leadership.
-If you are in the path of the storm, please remember communication can be limited. Please find a way to reach out to your district superintendent within 48 hours of the storm passing. After Hurricane Michael, many clergy families evacuated and we were unable to reach them for days.
-It is impossible to have a comprehensive response plan until we know the damage but please be aware that the conference will respond in immediate ways. That usually means walking alongside city leaders and other response organizations. As traumatic as Hurricane Michael was, we have trained a lot of people and have a lot more expertise that will enable us to best respond.
-Finally, please do not deploy unless directed by conference leadership. Now is a great time to be in touch with team members to ensure you have updated contact information and badges.
Further updates will be posted to this site as needed.