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Water mixed with crude oil reached rooftops throughout east Coffeyville after record-level flooding hit southeast Kansas in late June and early July.

Recovery from summer floods continues in southeast Kansas

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

Flood waters receded weeks ago in southeast Kansas, but the after effects of record-high water levels continue to have an impact on congregations and communities in the region.

Hardest hit was Coffeyville, a town of 10,000, which saw massive flooding when the levee was topped June 30. The city’s misery was compounded by the accidental release of 72,000 gallons of crude oil. This combination left an oily high-water mark on structures throughout the eastern part of town, as more than 2,000 people were displaced, with hundreds of homes and about 70 businesses destroyed.

Other cities in the area, including Independence, Fredonia, Iola and Chanute, also saw significant flooding. Iola, a town of about 8,000, had 300 homes and 37 business affected.

Episcopal parishes in the Southeast Convocation are continuing to reach out to those in need, just as they did in the days after the flood. In Coffeyville, St. Paul’s continues to offer support to the three parish families who lost their homes. The parish’s rector, the Very Rev. Jerry Adinolfi, said he is using his discretionary fund to offer aid to his parishioners and to others in town needing help.

Bishop Dean Wolfe visited Coffeyville on Aug. 4 to view the devastation firsthand. He also sent the parish $4,000 from a special diocesan fund earmarked for victims of the summer’s natural disasters.

Adinolfi said he also received nearly $3,000 from St. James’, Wichita, whose rector, the Very Rev. Kate Moorehead, went to seminary with him. Donations also have come from within his parish, as well as from friends and parishes across the country. A group of students from Kansas State University came to help with clean-up, and St. Paul’s covered the cost of their food while in town.

Adinolfi said his displaced parishioners still are struggling to get settled again. One family, with a baby expected in June, is living with relatives, alternating months with each side, he said. They have applied for a FEMA trailer but so far have no word on whether they will get one. “The process is long and complicated,” he said. The other two families started out living with relatives, but one now is in a rental unit and the other is trying to buy an old house.

That will be tricky, because housing is in critically short supply, he said, and that situation won’t change for quite some time. The flood did the greatest damage in eastern Coffeyville, where much of the property was lower priced or rental, Adinolfi said.

Many of those places either were uninsured or underinsured. Some are receiving payouts from the refinery of 110 percent of a house’s value, but because property values are so low in that area, Adinolfi said any money homeowners receive won’t be enough to rebuild.

He said few structures in the flooded area have been torn down, leaving it “a virtual ghost town,” he said. “The oil-stained, rotted buildings still remain.”

Adinolfi was one of the first people allowed in to the flooded areas on July 11 after water receded. He and other Coffeyville clergy offered pastoral care as residents began to pick through what was left of their belongings. “The devastation is terrible,” he reported then.

Other towns affected, too

In Iola, St. Timothy’s Church had one family with some substantial water damage, and the parish helped by providing them a new couch and recliner. In addition, they have “adopted” three families who lost everything.

Parishioner Sue O’Connor, who works at Tramec Corporation, a local manufacturing plant, knew the families through work and helped connect them to the Rev. Jan Chubb, the parish’s vicar.

St. Timothy’s gave each of the families an initial grant of $1,000 from parish outreach funds and are continuing to help as needed. They bought new school clothes so children in one family would be outfitted to start school this fall.

Parishioners stocked the kitchen pantry for another family after they purchased a new mobile home, having used their thousand dollars from the church as a down payment.

The parish continues to collect large amounts of food for the city’s food pantry and is augmenting those offerings with home-cooked meals, packaged in aluminum pans and then frozen.

Chubb said many displaced residents are living in motels and can only cook something in a small microwave. The 25 packages of spaghetti went quickly, she said, noting they are the only church in town to undertake this particular outreach. They’ll keep cooking and freezing meals until the end of the year, she said.

Response to continue

Bishop Wolfe said he is proud of the way the Episcopal Church has responded to help people hurt by this natural disaster. He noted Adinolfi and Chubb, along with other clergy in the Southeast Convocation, have been leaders in their response to their cities’ devastation.

He said, “As people of faith, we sometimes find our best selves in our worst moments. Our prayers continue to go out to those who are displaced and homeless, and we are committed to providing help to those who need our help.”

The bishop said he is especially pleased to learn of plans among Episcopal college students to put together mission trips to help residents still hard-hit by the floods.

Financial assistant will be on-going, too, he said. The offering at the Oct. 19 Diocesan Convention Eucharist will be designated for flood relief, and he said he wants to designate a special offering on a Sunday this fall so people in every parish in the diocese can donate to the cause. He thinks a date near Thanksgiving might be an appropriate time to do that.

Bishop Wolfe said, “The summer’s flooding in southeast Kansas gives us a tremendous opportunity to reach out as never before. Episcopalians have been generous in responding to the needs of our friends and neighbors, and we will be called to do even more in the weeks and months ahead.