Special Offering for Hurricane Dorian Support

The Board of Stewardship and Mission approved receiving a special offering on Oct. 27th in response to Hurricane Dorian’s devastation in the Bahamas. Although no longer head-line news, recovery work continues and will need to be long term.

On September 1, 2019, Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, stalling and battering the island nation for 2 days. With wind speeds estimated between 185 to 220 miles per hour and 23 foot storm surge, Dorian was the most powerful recorded hurricane at landfall. The most cur-rent estimates show Dorian has left at least 58 dead, 600 still reported missing, and 13,000 homes severely damaged or destroyed on the Bahamas’ Abaco and Grand

Bahamas islands – near-ly 40 percent of all homes on the two is-lands.

UCC Disaster Ministries is appealing for funds to support long-term recovery – beginning with assessment and community planning and likely to continue for several years. UCC Disaster Ministries:

• Supported the deployment of a team of individuals by the ecumenical ACT Alliance to assess dam-ages with intent to determine steps needed to support recovery and rehabilitation.

• Is focusing on long-term recovery. This means that its work may only begin several months from now and last for several years. This only occurs after emergency needs are met, assessments can be completed, and community planning has happened. At that time UCC Disaster Minis-tries will help fund and support the work of its partners who are engaged in recovery efforts which may include but are not limited to reconstruction, livelihood restoration, psychosocial support, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) pro-jects, community preparedness, and disaster risk reduction initiatives.

Funds you donate will be earmarked for UCC Disaster Ministries work in the Bahamas.