Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated communities in the Southeast United States nearly a year ago, and United Church of Christ churches in the areas where the storms hit have been responding and strategizing ways to best serve their communities on the ongoing path to recovery.
With the generosity shown across the broader church through the national Hurricanes 2024 appeal, UCC Disaster Ministries and Global H.O.P.E (Humanitarian, Opportunities, Partnerships, and Empowerment) have developed a new Ministry Capacity Building Grant to support the vital role that local churches, Associations, and Conferences play within their communities for disaster support and response. The grants aim to provide tapered multi-year support for those seeking to build or rebuild their capacity to minister to the post-disaster needs of their community, explained UCC Disaster Minister Katie Howe.
Four grants have been distributed to UCC churches in Western North Carolina and Western Florida: High Country UCC near Boone, North Carolina, ready to serve as a volunteer host site for groups helping to rebuild homes; Pass-a-Grille Beach Community UCC in St. Pete Beach, Florida, rebuilding a thrift store that utilizes its proceeds to support unmet needs in their community and serves as a distribution site during disasters; First Congregational UCC in Asheville, North Carolina, making necessary capital improvements so their building can better live into its vision of being a community resource hub and host to multiple community organizations who are part of the long-term recovery process; and Church of the Isles UCC in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, maximizing their available community meeting space and nurturing opportunities for social connection and spiritual enrichment for their neighbors.
Hurricane Helene created high flooding in September 2024, and communities continue to recover. Curly Stumb photo.
“These grants represent the wider church’s generosity, solidarity and accompaniment of local congregations who have each developed unique and different responses to their communities’ needs as they all work to recovery from the devastation caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024,” said Andrew Long-Higgins, Global H.O.P.E. team leader. He feels excited that Ministry Capacity Rebuilding grants provide flexibility in making local churches the experts on how best to respond to the conditions in their communities.
“We always say all response to disaster happens locally, and these churches are in the community and know the key stakeholders and where the gaps are,” Howe said. “Churches that have experienced disaster and are engaged in long-term recovery work become leaders in their communities and become advocates for those who may have trouble navigating the systems in place.”
“At a time when so much of our world feels fractured, I think this is an amazing testament to what the church can be when it is at its best,” said Long-Higgins.
High Country UCC near Boone, North Carolina has a shower trailer to offer volunteer groups seeking to help in disaster recovery.
High Country UCC welcomes volunteers
When Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina last September, several church members sheltered in High Country UCC as their homes became unsafe. Since the church was largely intact because of its location on higher ground, immediately following the hurricane, it became a hub for people to shower and check in with people through the church’s wi-fi.
“The church, both physically and emotionally, was a lifesaver” when people needed a place to go, said Steve Marks, a member of High Country’s disaster response committee who also serves as the fire chief of the local volunteer fire department.
Recognizing the asset of sharing their building post-disaster, High Country has arranged to become an official UCC volunteer site for groups to come and serve the community in its ongoing disaster recovery.
“One of the things that many folks recognized, including the church, is that in a disaster of this magnitude, there’s not one church or organization that can do it all. The diversity that we can offer as a more holistic response is what is going to make this successful,” Marks said. “We have this wonderful opportunity to use our space in a creative way.”
With the Ministry Capacity Building Grant, the church is offering sleeping accommodations, a full kitchen, and a shower trailer for up to 20 volunteers at a time. The church also has a dedicated coordinator for groups to connect with local volunteer opportunities, as well as resources for youth groups and folks who want to enjoy the community.
Damage to North Carolina roads from Hurricane Helene in September 2024.
While a great deal of immediate recovery work has taken place in Watauga County and surrounding areas, “we know that there is tons of work still to be done,” said the church’s pastor, Rev. Sarah Parker. This includes many people who have still not been able to get back into their houses or to decide what to do with their houses, she said.
There is a particular need to assist folks in Tennessee and North Carolina who were already disadvantaged before the storm, Marks noted, adding that such work will better the community long-term. Many homes are still uninhabitable, and debris continues to prevent folks from living as usual on their own land, he said.
Jeanne Tayloe, who serves on the High Country UCC committee, recalled her experience volunteering as one of the first church groups to respond in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago. This experience, among others, has readied congregants to use their church as a way to make volunteering in their area more accessible for many others.
“I know what this does to the comradery of the churches that come and the lasting relationship that comes from a mission experience,” Tayloe said. “I’m looking forward to providing that opportunity for folks.”
The Pass-A-Grille Beach Community UCC thrift store had to be cleared out due to damage from the hurricanes in 2024.
Pass-A-Grille Beach Community UCC
Communities on Florida’s west coast were doubly struck last year when Hurricane Helene was followed by Hurricane Milton less than two weeks later. Two UCC churches – Pass-A-Grille Beach Community UCC and Church of the Isles – experienced the impacts in their church buildings and throughout their broader communities.
The Rev. Angela Wells-Beam knew that when she began her position as senior minister at Pass-A-Grille in January of this year, she was going to minister to a community experiencing trauma from the hurricanes. The church had taken on several feet of water, and much of it had become a construction zone. Many church members personally affected had to make difficult decisions about whether to renovate or move from their homes.
The church returned to worshipping in their space about two months following the hurricanes – even when it was “a shell of its former shelf” with no drywall and concrete floors – as they felt a sense of God calling them to be together in that space, Wells-Beam said.
Pass-A-Grille Beach Community UCC is repairing damage to serve as a community resource.
“Going through the crisis made them realize we are here for one another, and God is really calling us to be a church in this place,” she said. “We are the only church on Passe-A-Grille Beach, and I think the congregation feels a greater sense of community to one another and the community.”
Now, much of the major construction on the church is done. The sanctuary is fully operational and the Montessori school it hosts has reopened.
The Ministry Capacity Rebuilding Grant is supporting restoration of the church’s thrift store, which is now under construction. The thrift store serves many purposes to the local community, Wells-Beam said. Though located in a wealthier beachfront community where people might perceive less financial need, many people live on limited incomes in the area, and the thrift store helps to support their needs, she said. The store has also developed strong community among the volunteers and seniors who regularly shop and connect with each other there.
“After the storm, when the whole the building was gutted, the thrift store still opened, showing the commitment of donors and shoppers,” Wells-Beam said. “People are looking for a sense of normalcy, and the thrift store is one way to represent coming back after the storm.”
“We’re deeply grateful for the broader church’s support and deeply committed to the UCC. We’re appreciative and grateful for that generosity, and we want to pay it forward. We feel a sense of togetherness as grant recipients and plan to continue to support special offerings and disaster ministries,” she said. “Churches in vulnerable areas don’t always have safety nets, and these kinds of grants allow us to keep going. It matters so much.”
Church of the Isles UCC was able to return to worship in their restored sanctuary on Palm Sunday 2025, more than six months after the space suffered significant hurricane damage.
Church of the Isles UCC
Church of the Isles UCC sits on the barrier island off the coast of Pinellas County. The church itself experienced several feet of water and structural damage in its church and thrift store, including losing most of the building’s contents. And over the course of several months, professional remediators helped remove and dry out building elements.
Volunteers from the church and relief organizations – with special assistance from Plymouth Congregational Church in Miami – helped to repair and return the campus to usable condition. The congregation was able to both return to worshipping in the sanctuary and reopen the thrift store around Palm Sunday of this year.
The Rev. Wesley Snedeker, pastor of Church of the Isles, described how the storms “took lives, disrupted our neighbors’ sense of safety in our beach community, and destroyed significant property, homes, and ways of life. The spiritual, emotional, and material losses caused by the storms will reverberate throughout our community long after their immediate trauma fades.”
While Snedeker said that the Indian Rocks Beach community has made significant strides in rebuilding in the past year, he noted a significant need for communal spaces of solidarity and socializing.
“Our church has been blessed to fill that need since we reopened our fellowship hall last December thanks to the able leadership of our church council,” he said.
Church of the Isles UCC and the surrounding areas in Indian Rock Beach, Florida, suffered significant flooding in Hurricane Helene.
Many of the community groups whose sites were seriously impacted by the storms began meeting regularly in the church’s building, including AA groups, an Al-Anon group, a local nonprofit, the city commission, and a local arts center’s kids summer camp. As people in Indian Rocks Beach continue to experience collective anxiety related to the storm – many people in the congregation and community have not yet returned to their homes – the church is offering space and opportunities for spiritual enrichment, fellowship, and connection.
“We feel that we are being called to expand this ministry of welcome as a hospitable and Open and Affirming gathering place for the people of Indian Rocks Beach and West Pinellas County,” he said.
Snedeker expressed gratitude for the financial contributions from individuals, congregations, and the appeals taken by the UCC Disaster Ministries and Florida Conference. “Faith communities themselves are empowered to utilize these funds in both their own recovery and in amplifying their ministries of service, witness, worship, and belonging for their neighbors,” he said.
The broader church can continue responding to discovery recovery through support, prayer, and its prophetic work, Snedeker encouraged.
“Pray for all those still displaced from their homes. Pray for all those who lost a loved one, a beloved animal companion, or their sense of safety on the beach as the first anniversary of the storms approaches. Pray for those in civic leadership and service-oriented nonprofits who do their work in extremely challenging circumstances,” he said.
First Congregational UCC in Asheville, North Carolina, is currently hosting the art exhibit “Where the Waters Fell” to process the experiences of Hurricane Helene nearing its one-year anniversary.
“Finally, and vitally, the church should continue our prophetic work of fighting global climate change and the human abuses that are accelerating it. Unchecked extractive production and pollution are raising global temperatures, which is directly contributing to rising sea levels and increasingly extreme weather events. Advocating for coastal communities like ours looks like fighting for creation justice,” he said.
First Congregational Community Church UCC
The Oak Street Art Gallery at First Congregational Community Church UCC in Asheville currently hosts a photo exhibit that seeks to capture the pain, loss, and quiet resilience within communities impacted by Hurricane Helene as the one-year anniversary nears.
Situated in the heart of downtown Asheville, First Congregational felt the storm’s impact with some water and structural damage, though the church’s location about a mile from the overflowing river saved them from worse damage. The church’s central location in the city makes it a place that people gravitate toward, said Kathleen Stigmon, First Congregational’s ministry and administrative coordinator.
First Congregational UCC in Asheville seeks to offer its building as a resource hub for the community.
In the immediate aftermath of Helene, their church building became an important asset to several groups and individuals – including support groups and arts programs – whose spaces were flooded or otherwise unable. The Campaign for Southern Equality, a long-term renter within the church, used established a weekly resource center and safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community to offer community gathering space, meals, haircuts, and legal advice.
A Ministry Capacity Grant will support the restoration needs of their space to ensure safe and available space for resources and community organizations involved in the long-term recovery process.
Stigmon said the church has been fortunate to experience a great deal of support from people around the UCC and beyond for disaster response. For instance, a New Hampshire quilting club reached out to send them 15 quilts to distribute to people in need. Many direct donations they received have gone toward supporting members who lost homes or were displaced and to supportive entities around the area, like those providing free counseling, Stigmon said.
A quilting group donated quilts to First Congregational UCC in Asheville following Hurricane Helene.
“As a church that does a lot of benevolence work in the community, it was humbling to be on the receiving end of such graciousness, well wishes, and kindness. I’ve never seen anything like it,” she reflected.
The congregation felt such a positive impact of support following the hurricanes that they felt moved to pass it on. Following the California wildfires earlier this year, First Congregational took up an offering dedicated to sending financial support for disaster recovery there.
“This disaster has made us see that we’re all part of this world and we all have something to contribute and help each other,” Stigmon said.
Long-term recovery
The Ministry Capacity Rebuilding Grants are made possible by the 2024 Hurricanes appeal, which supports victims of hurricanes Milton and Helene, and are available alongside Global H.O.P.E.’s Long-Term Recovery and Repair Grants, Long-Term Recovery Seed Grants, and Solidarity Grants. The full list of grant funds distributed is available in the 2024 Hurricanes Special Appeal Updates.
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