Gifts given to Lutheran Disaster Response – Eastern Pennsylvania support recovery efforts for Hurricane Sandy and our ongoing efforts in the 19 counties of Eastern Pennsylvania that are still recovering from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

Here are just some of the ways that we have been able to help those who are still recovering from natural disaster:

• More than 1,300 people received clean-up, repair and rebuilding of family homes,

• Offered State-wide volunteer leadership and disaster preparedness trainings,

• Provided Camp Noah summer camps for children affected by disaster with supervised interaction as they processed their losses,

• Presented congregations with trainings on Disaster Response in Northeast and Southeast Pennsylvania,

• Recruited and planned volunteer work teams to travel to disasters in local areas area as well as other parts of the country,

• Volunteers provided spiritual support, gathered supplies and prepared for the long term recovery process for our brothers and sisters in New Jersey.

Our work together enabled the delivery of hundreds of cases of water to people without power and therefore no means of pumping wells, wet basements have been cleaned, tree debris has been removed, and shelters have been staffed. This is on top of the on-going needs left in the wake of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee that devastated our territory last fall.

Lutheran Disaster Response was able to provide a delivery of food to St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Ferndale, a church that had been providing dinner to the Red Cross shelter at the Palisades High School. Our assistance will feed more than 225 people dinner for 3 evenings. We are proud of Lutheran congregations who have provided hospitality and shelter to those in need in the midst of these power outages.