Last month in Howard County, Indiana, eight tornadoes swept through the city of Kokoma in one afternoon and evening. The tornadoes struck the same area that was hardest hit by tornadoes more than two years ago.
Kokomo is a low-income area, and communities there faced power outages, uprooted trees, blown-off roofs, and severe damage to homes and churches. Several hundred people were displaced from their homes. Miraculously, no one was killed or hurt.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is supporting the Indiana Annual Conference with an emergency grant to assist the efforts of a local mission project, Kokomo Urban Outreach, which is providing recovery support for the outreach center and the community it serves. With the help of United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM), Kokomo Urban Outreach will provide immediate basic needs to tornado survivors, including food supplies, shelter, clean-up supplies, and personal living needs.
UMCOR is also assisting the Indiana conference with a grant for the city of South Bend, which experienced a heavy downfall of rain in August — 12 inches in two hours. The city and surrounding areas experienced severe flooding in areas that were not expected to flood and not located in a flood plain. More than 1,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed.
The UMCOR grant will allow the conference to support local United Methodist churches in their efforts to assist their neighborhoods, and will provide supplies to meet the immediate needs of individuals who have been displaced.
You can support UMCOR disaster response efforts in the U.S. by giving to U.S. Disaster Response, Advance #901670.
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