St. Paul's in Bound Brook, Diocese of New Jersey has been transformed into a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center. The Rev. Edward Murphy, rector, expects the church to house the federal officials for at least six weeks.

The April 15 storm hit hard in Bound Brook, a community still recovering from the devastating floods following Hurricane Floyd only six years ago.

St. Paul's faced water in the basement, but its location on higher ground saved it from more extensive destruction. A local councilman asked Murphy to allow the church to be the FEMA site since "the other churches in town are still muddy-ing out," he explained. "That's the term–muddying out—and it's self explanatory."

With Spanish-speaking residents constituting "about 80 percent of those who were affected by the flood," Murphy pointed out, "We're helping everyone. It's a safe place for people to come. This is real ministry."

In addition to FEMA, St. Paul's is accommodating an array of government agencies, including the Bureau of Consumer Affairs "to assure there are no rip-offs."

Parishioners have helped, but "they, too, have been busy with their own cleanup and work." As a result, Murphy issued an appeal to neighboring Episcopal churches "to assist by offering coffee and snack items to those filling out forms who sustained such loss from the floods."

St. Paul's was forced to cancel all parish hall activities, and group meetings, such as AA, were temporarily relocated.

Nonetheless, the flooding and subsequent events didn't deter St. Paul's from holding its scheduled rummage sale. "The rummage items were already here in the church and the items were needed after the flood," Murphy quipped.

The situation at St. Thomas, Mamaroneck, in the Diocese of New York is similar even though it is 66 miles away.

Mamaroneck was deemed the epicenter of the April 15 storm. "I never saw anything like that before," said the Rev. Deborah Tammearu, rector. "We had a bad flood on March 2. Six weeks later we're really underwater, equivalent to a Category One hurricane."

St. Thomas was named a Reception Center for the Department of Social Services and other agencies to assist people to negotiate the relief system. "We have state and county people here," explained Tammearu.

In addition to operating as a relief center, Tammearu cited St. Thomas' involvement in other areas of assistance.

"I found the First Baptist Church had been flooded from its basement up to its pulpit, so we invited them and they were here on April 22 and worshipped with us," she noted. "St. Thomas was a kindergarten for a day, because the Mamaroneck Ave. kindergarten was closed so we had 100 four- and five-year-olds here. They were in our Sunday School rooms and in the parish hall and everywhere—it was great."

Fortunately, like St. Paul's, St. Thomas didn't suffer much damage. "We had about a foot of water in the basement of the parish hall. We had some up in our choir room in the basement of the church, but we really were not in bad shape."

Tammearu has witnessed "a great outpouring of money. We're been distributing cards for drug stores and food stores. Many people are in their homes but they can't cook. The cards allow them to baby food diapers and prescriptions and other necessary things."

Murphy agreed, adding that he has inaugurated a pet registry for residents to keep track of pets not allowed in shelters.

Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) responded to the communities affected by severe flooding. "Our dioceses and churches are working with the local communities and other voluntary organizations to support and help re-build their communities," said Richard Ohlsen, ERD's Director of Domestic Disaster Response.

To help people affected by disasters, please make a donation to the Emergency Relief Fund at http://www.er-d.org/, or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and Development "Emergency Relief Fund" P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.