Lutherans Hit by Tornadoes in Pennsylvania

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Nature knows neither grace nor mercy," said the Rev. Donald B. Green, Pittsburgh.  "Sixteen tornadoes touched down in southwestern Pennsylvania June 2 accompanied by strong winds, damaging hail, heavy rains and flash flooding, two successive bands of violent storms traversed the region."  Green is an assistant to the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod.
     The Rev. Karen R. Taylor, Mount Washington Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, has been surveying the damage where the storm hit, said Green. "She opened the church for shelter for those whose homes were lost or severely damaged.  She will continue to coordinate relief efforts with me for the area," he said.
     The ELCA's Domestic Disaster Response and Lutheran Disaster Response have responded to 17 disasters in the last five months, according to the Rev. Leon A. Phillips, director for Lutheran Disaster Response, a ministry of the ELCA and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
     Lutherans have responded to tornadoes, floods and ice storms in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Guam, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.  Phillips said major relief efforts from 1997 disasters are still underway in Minnesota, North and South Dakota.
     "What is so very different about this spring than any spring I can recall is not so much the number of tornadoes, but heavy devastation and violent destruction," said Phillips.  "We find ourselves responding not to the normal tornadoes of springtime, but to major disasters, even catastrophes."
     "St. Peter, Minn., Kissimmee and Sanford, Fla., Birmingham, Ala., and Spencer, S.D., are towns that have suffered widespread devastation.  I cannot recall a time when a tornado of such severity struck and damaged block after block of a town," said Phillips.
     "The ELCA's Domestic Disaster Response and Lutheran Disaster Response has expended well over $100,000 in emergency tornado response during these past weeks," said Phillips.  "We have no idea yet what the final cost will be, or even what all the needs will be....  I am stunned by the relief work that these major storms have left behind."

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