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Dear Friends in Christ,
The earth moved, a 6.4 earthquake hit us early on Tuesday morning, and it was a scary night and day as strong aftershocks continued to shake us over the next 24 hours.
Within 15 minutes of the first hit, Mark Dibelka, Diocesan Missioner for Disaster Resiliency, texted me to find out if we were okay, how was the congregation doing, how did the church buildings fare. During those first few hours I am grateful that texts started to confirm that folks were okay, houses were a mess, but no major damage, and "Thanks be to God" no-one injured in the quake. Cori and Keith went that night to the church, on their rounds of checking on family, and texted that no major damage to the church buildings had occurred. All these reports I texted back to Mark.
As we hadn't heard from folks in Rio Dell, Earl and I went that morning to visit Janet and Bobbi & Steve to check on them, and we saw some of the damage to houses in Rio Dell. That community was more severely hit than Fortuna -- we now know there are at least 50 families displaced. Janet reminded me that in her lifetime, five major disasters have hit Humboldt County on December 20th or 21st -- two major floods and now three severe earthquakes. She was sad for broken heirlooms, but as we hugged, she said how blessed she felt because it could have been so much worse. We are resilient people.
That noontime Judy and Fannette showed up at the church. As Earl and I went around taking pictures they began to clean up broken dishes in the kitchen -- yes, Corelle ware does break when it is thrown from cabinets during a 6.4 earthquake. As you can see from some of the photos, our biggest damage was to the cymbal stern which crashed onto the floor. We have cracks in plaster in Sanctuary and Parish Hall, but no damage to stained glass windows.
Later Tuesday afternoon, Bishop +Megan called me to check on how we are doing. She is sending us a check for $1000 to use for earthquake relief. Mark, Deacon Cindy+, Steve Preston, Nellie Thompson, Father Daniel+ have coordinated how to get the (RE)START bins we have on hand in our congregations ready to deploy.
It has been a "wonky" few days. God is our refuge and strength. On Christmas Eve we will gather to hug, to sing, and to worship and to celebrate Emmanuel, "God with us!"
Blessings, Geri+
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