
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and then moved north dropping 30 trillion gallons of water on western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and western Virginia caused catastrophic flooding. A few weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida again. Both storms destroyed homes and flooded out communities. They need our help.

Sager Brown, the central distribution center for UMCOR cleaning kits, aka flood buckets, is completely empty. Thousands of kits are urgently needed on the ground. On Tuesday Oct 15, members of the Cabinet and EPA staff collaborated to pack 20 cleaning kits. You are invited to join the fun and pack a cleaning kit, or five, or ten and donate them to your nearest collection hub (see list below).
“There are so many ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, to let people know that we are with them.” – Bishop Moore-Koikoi.
Packing Cleaning Kits are just one way to help. Here are other ways you can make a difference.
- Pray: Our work is undergirded by the power of prayer – both in the hours after a disaster strikes and through recovery.
- Make supply kits: Assemble relief supply kits to help keep UMCOR’s Relief Supplies Network ready to deliver goods in the hands of survivors (U.S. only)
- Give: To support UMCOR’s U.S. disaster response efforts, you can give to Advance 901670 directly (please note that because UMCOR overheard is covered through our Shared Ministries giving, every dollar your donate goes directly to helping those in need).
- Become a temporary supply kit collection site: We are looking for a few churches to serve as additional collection sites for completed flood buckets. Additionally, volunteers are needed to assist with filled bucket transportation to Mission Central. Please contact Denise Shelton dshelton@epaumc.church to coordinate.
- Volunteer: Volunteers don’t just deploy to do hands on recovery work. Volunteers are also needed to make and receive phone calls, organization spreadsheets, and maintain communications. U.S. volunteer efforts are arranged through annual conferences; reach out to your conference disaster relief coordinator, Denise Shelton, dshelton@epaumc.church to get involved.
- Train to become an Early Responder: Trained Early Responders help people to clean out, so they can shelter in place and protect their homes from future water damage. We are always looking for more people to serve as Early Responders. Stay tuned for upcoming trainings.
Return Completed Cleaning Kits to:

Palmyra First UMC in Eastern Pennsylvania
520 E. Birch Street,
Palmyra, PA 17078