People across the city are already responding in a big way, setting up disaster relief stations and taking donations.
The Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, is a world-wide agency that sends humanitarian relief. It has a long-standing relationship with the island nation, in fact seven teams were already there working on other missions and Wednesday night they were preparing even more teams to take on new ones.
"I'm ready to go and help," said Kathie Mann, the Director of Partners and Mission Program at the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
It may be several weeks before early responders like Mann will be allowed in to the disaster zone.
In the meantime, she's busy preparing so that she is ready when that call comes. "The teams have to go completely self-contained, we go in after the first responders so there still will not be water and electricity and places for us to stay," Mann said.
The churches in the United Methodist Conference have started collecting donations and medical kits - items the response teams will take with them when they do go.
They are rounding up groups of 6 to 10 trained team members that will rotate in shifts to the hardest hit areas. "This is done until the area is ready for long-term recovery which is rebuilding," said Mann.
They only stay 3 to 4 days she says, because it's extremely stressful, but it's a task Mann has taken on many times before. Here in Houston volunteering for hurricanes Allison, Rita and Ike as well as other relief efforts across the nation. "This really reminds me of the earthquakes in El Salvador," she said. "You felt like you were walking on hallowed ground every where you went because you didn't know what was underneath the soil where you were."
"Even then it was devastating to see how people had to live," said Richard Goodrich, assistant to the Bishop.
It was 1985 when Goodrich lead a mission team to Haiti, but the memories are still vivid. "At the end of the road to the hotel there was a tall street lamp and every night we would go down and talk to the children because every night they would come down to do their homework because it was the only light available to them," he said. "To see this kind of devastation to people who are already experiencing poverty beyond our imagination, it's heavy on the heart," Goodrich said.
For more information on the medical kits or to donate, click here.
The Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, is a world-wide agency that sends humanitarian relief. It has a long-standing relationship with the island nation, in fact seven teams were already there working on other missions and Wednesday night they were preparing even more teams to take on new ones.
"I'm ready to go and help," said Kathie Mann, the Director of Partners and Mission Program at the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
It may be several weeks before early responders like Mann will be allowed in to the disaster zone.
In the meantime, she's busy preparing so that she is ready when that call comes. "The teams have to go completely self-contained, we go in after the first responders so there still will not be water and electricity and places for us to stay," Mann said.
The churches in the United Methodist Conference have started collecting donations and medical kits - items the response teams will take with them when they do go.
They are rounding up groups of 6 to 10 trained team members that will rotate in shifts to the hardest hit areas. "This is done until the area is ready for long-term recovery which is rebuilding," said Mann.
They only stay 3 to 4 days she says, because it's extremely stressful, but it's a task Mann has taken on many times before. Here in Houston volunteering for hurricanes Allison, Rita and Ike as well as other relief efforts across the nation. "This really reminds me of the earthquakes in El Salvador," she said. "You felt like you were walking on hallowed ground every where you went because you didn't know what was underneath the soil where you were."
"Even then it was devastating to see how people had to live," said Richard Goodrich, assistant to the Bishop.
It was 1985 when Goodrich lead a mission team to Haiti, but the memories are still vivid. "At the end of the road to the hotel there was a tall street lamp and every night we would go down and talk to the children because every night they would come down to do their homework because it was the only light available to them," he said. "To see this kind of devastation to people who are already experiencing poverty beyond our imagination, it's heavy on the heart," Goodrich said.
For more information on the medical kits or to donate, click here.
