The presbytery is hurrying to get the volunteer village completed, because the first work crews are due start using it on March 7 for hurricane relief work.
The volunteer village sustained “some significant wind damage,” Mike Cole, executive presbyter of New Covenant, said in an interview.
The dining tent was torn up, and two of the nine sleeping pods that volunteers will use were destroyed. A group of volunteers working on the site were already scheduled to leave on Feb. 13, so the presbytery has put out a call for reinforcements to come to the area quickly and help to reconstruct what was lost. “The construction folks are needed right now,” Cole said.
Once finished, the Port Neches Volunteer Village will house work crews from churches and others who come to assist Presbyterian Disaster Assistance with the long-term recovery efforts following Hurricane Ike, which lashed the Gulf Coast in September 2008.
“And they’re still doing recovery from Hurricane Rita, which was in 2005,” Cole said. “They’re blending the two recovery efforts out of the village.”
People wishing to assist with building the Port Neches village should contact the New Covenant presbytery office at 713-526-2585.
