Church helps overlooked survivors

               Photo by Michael Wacht  

Despite the coverage they received after last month's Hurricane Irene, many Canal Point residents were upset with the lack of coverage before last month's storm. Some said they watched news reports throughout the storm and waited for an evacuation order, but warnings were only broadcast for the coastal areas of Palm Beach County.     

CANAL POINT — Melanie Boyce is a mother of seven children, ages 1 to 11, and caring for a mother who has cancer. After Hurricane Irene took the shingles off the roof of her house, she and her family had no place to stay. After six days without electricity, the food in her refrigerator went bad, leaving family members, four of whom are diabetic, without food.

Unable to connect with the Federal Emergency Management Administration, Boyce turned to the United Methodist church here.

“I need someplace to live,” she said. “We came here to try to get help.”

While major relief agencies have been slow to respond, the Rev. Linda Joyce, pastor of Canal Point United Methodist Church, said church members have already helped 25 families and are looking for ways to help Boyce and nearly 6,000 other people affected by the storm.

Hurricane Irene brought wind gusts of up to 120 miles per hour to the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. Joyce said a nearby trailer park was hit hardest, with uprooted trees and felled branches completely demolishing trailers and punching holes in the roofs of others.

“There was not much warning for this particular area,” Joyce said. “The media focused on what to expect on the coast…they didn’t tell us what to expect.”

Many of those affected by the storm are migrant and seasonal farm workers who came from North Carolina and Ohio to harvest sugar cane and work in the sugar mills.

Within four days after the storm, volunteers from the 130-member church contacted more than 75 families needing help, Joyce said. So far, the church has given food vouchers, bottled water, juice and other supplies to 25 families.

Church volunteers have distributed flood buckets, health kits and food provided by the conference’s disaster relief ministry. They have also referred people to local shelters and feeding centers and are working with the local ministerial association and National Guard.

Miguel Albor, a temporary worker from Mexico who was in town to work at a local sugar mill, said he has been out of work for two weeks because the cane fields are too wet for the harvesting machines. He only has enough food and money to last another two weeks. Then, he will have to find work in North Carolina or Mexico.

Joyce said the cane field workers present a long-term ministry opportunity for the church. “[They] are going to be out of work for up to two months,” she said. “There will be hundreds of people with no income. We’ll be feeding them after the others [relief agencies] go away.”

Joyce said the first thing the church needs is prayer. “Pray,” she said. “God answers prayers.

She said bilingual volunteers are also needed. “We can use small teams, bilingual in Spanish and Creole…,” she said, “just to walk around, listen, pray and give pastoral care.”

For more information on how to help in Canal Point and Pahokee, contact Joyce at 561-924-7325, or lindajoyce1@juno.com.  

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