Lutherans Respond to Ice Storms in the Northeast

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran Disaster Response has arranged for 40 generators to be shipped from Fargo, N.D., to aid people in upstate New York in the wake of winter and ice storms that have caused damage in the Watertown, Redwood and Mooers communities.  Lutheran Disaster Response is a cooperative effort between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
     "The generators were used for the Red River Valley floods last year and may be used later this spring in Devil's Lake, N.D.," said the Rev. Gilbert B. Furst, associate director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response. "The response of the church to the needs of one area of our country will multiply blessings in response to another," said Furst.
     As communications improve, the immediate needs caused by the ice storms are becoming more and more apparent.  Rural homeowners and dairy farmers in Watertown, Redwood and Mooers are in a present crisis because there is no electricity for heating homes and sustaining dairy farming, said Furst.
     Farmers are losing milk because they cannot refrigerate or process it.  Cattle continue to produce milk, which eventually gets dumped, said the Rev. Lee M. Miller, bishop of the ELCA's Upstate New York Synod. "Making the next rent payment will be an issue for some as we go into the future," Miller said.
     "It will be three or four weeks before electricity will be fully restored in the rural areas of upstate New York," said the Rev. Stephen C. Biegner, St. Andrew Lutheran Church, South Glens Falls, N.Y.
     "While we will not respond on the same scale as the upper Midwest blizzards and floods of 1997, we are helping to close the gaps between the needs of the areas affected and their ability to respond using their own resources," said Furst.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html