New Orleans Revival continues with help from Non-Profits and Faith-Based Organization

The suffering experienced by those affected by Hurricane Katrina caused some doubt in the community’s spirituality and religious faith.  However, in the face of devastation, the success of Post-Katrina progress in New Orleans is heavily due to non-profits and faith-based organizations, and the community is deeply grateful to these groups.

United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area designated appliances to house rebuilds made possible by the United Methodist Committee of Relief (UMCOR) in New Orleans East, an area significantly damaged by Katrina.  A house blessing was held on July 13th, 2007, at one of the first fully completed houses.

UMCOR, the humanitarian relief and development agency of the United Methodist Church, has responded to natural or human made disasters - those interruptions of such magnitude that they overwhelm a community's ability to recover on its own – for the past 65 years.  After the 2005 Hurricane Season ravaged the Gulf Coast Region, UMCOR assumed its largest role ever in a domestic natural disaster.

In the year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, UMCOR raised $64.5 million for hurricane relief, causing Newsweek magazine to rank the agency sixth in a survey of “Big Names in Katrina Relief.”  In addition to the amount donated for Katrina relief, United Methodist volunteers put thousands of hours into recovery efforts and donated $7.6 million in relief supplies.

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