Weekend Plug-in 🔌

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(ANALYSIS) I don’t even know where to start.

The stories and pictures of Hurricane Helene’s aftermath — particularly in western North Carolina — are unreal.

As I write this, the official number of lives lost stands at 215, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005, The Associated Press reports. And the search for victims — hundreds of them, according to NPR — has dragged into a second week.

Roughly half the fatalities were in North Carolina, while dozens more died in South Carolina and Georgia, AP notes.

“The last time a storm like this hit was in the Book of Genesis when Noah had to build an ark,” Zeb Smathers, the mayor of Canton, North Carolina, told AP.

As a journalist, I’ve covered death and destruction for decades. 

I heard the boom, saw the smoke and rushed to the scene of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which claimed 168 lives.

Later, I ignored storm warnings and drove through the dark to talk to survivors after deadly tornadoes ravaged central Oklahoma in 1999. (Older and hopefully wiser, I wouldn’t do that again. I’d wait for the all-clear from meteorologists.)

But no disaster scene overwhelmed me like Katrina nearly two decades ago. 

A few days after the 2005 storm, I flew with a group from a Louisiana ministry — now known as One Kingdom — to survey damages in Gulfport, Mississippi, and the New Orleans area. 

One of those who led that trip, Don Yelton, is now retired and lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina, which faces a state of emergency after Helene. I tried calling him this week but could not reach him before my deadline.

Even when I returned to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast months after Katrina, I recall being struck, as I wrote then, by the “miles and miles of debris — miniature mountains of three limbs, mattresses, broken chairs, smashed toy robots and mildewed stuffed animals piled high outside thousands of homes.”

From a distance, the Helene aftermath has a similar staggering feel.

As I said, I don’t even know where to start.

But really, I suppose I do.

The long-running ministries that never fail to respond to such disasters — the “faith-based FEMA” — are a good place to begin.

An umbrella group of faith-based agencies and secular charities comprise the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (National VOAD). The group’s website offers tips on how to volunteer and donate responsibly.

“The good news is that when disaster strikes, Christians give,” MinistryWatch.com’s Warren Smith writes. “But where you give makes a difference. I’m sad to say that some organizations use disasters opportunistically, to raise funds, and do little to help people where the disaster occurs.

“Others, though, are made for such moments,” he adds. “They have systems and processes to respond quickly and efficiently.”

As Christianity Today’s Daniel Silliman points out, the “National Guard is working with churches to help disaster victims in Western North Carolina.” The USA Today Network’s Kelly Puente provides compelling coverage of that.

The sound of chainsaws and earth-moving equipment has brought hope to Helene-damaged areas as Mennonite Disaster Service workers help clear back roads, Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana reports.

But the devastation of hundreds of miles from the Florida Gulf Coast to Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina, Christianity Today’s Emily Belz notes, “has created a complicated equation for Christian organizations that are on the frontline of disaster response.”

The latest “Crossroads” podcast featuring Terry Mattingly explores how “people of faith make real news after disasters.”

Leaders of one well-known ministry — Samaritan’s Purse, based in Boone, North Carolina — “had to find a way to help others as well as themselves,” as Religion Unplugged’s own Matthew Peterson explains.

Southern Baptists are coordinating supply runs and clearing damage in western North Carolina, according to the USA Today Network’s Liam Adams. See more details via Baptist Press’ Brandon Elrod.

Relief organizations associated with Churches of Christ “are beginning to send aid throughout the Southeast as damage and needs are assessed”  after Helene, The Christian Chronicle’s Calvin Cockrell writes.

The helpers in Asheville, North Carolina, include Catholic priests, Barb Fraze reports for the National Catholic Reporter.

In hard-hit areas, residents — including people of faith — “are assisting each other … and preparing for years of recovery,” as the Christian Science Monitor’s Simon Montlake details.

Elsewhere, Chris Moody, a North Carolina-based journalist who has written for Religion Unplugged, shares for the Atlantic how “our neighbors are taking care of each other once again.”

Moody predicts “a long road ahead” for the communities hit by Helene.

That’s crucial to note.

The disturbing images will fade quickly from televisions and social media. But the needs won’t disappear anytime soon.

The recovery process — excruciating at times — will take months and even years as neighbors, public servants and, yes, the faith-based FEMA work alongside each other.

Inside The Godbeat

“The unbuckling of the Bible Belt.”

That’s how pastor Ed Young Jr. described recent megachurch scandals around Dallas that seem to have no end, as the New York Times’ Ruth Graham reports.

See earlier coverage on Dallas’ summer of pastor scandals by Christianity Today’s Emily Belz.

Why have eight North Texas pastors resigned or been removed since June? The Dallas Morning News’ Adrian Ashford explains what led to their exits.

The Final Plug

I spent the first part of this week at Harding University’s Inspire lectureship in Searcy, Ark.

I enjoyed seeing my friend Frank Lockwood, religion editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.