c. 2005 Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ Leaders of First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Ala., this week welcomed families they’d never met before, survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

“We have not really advertised it,” said John Jenkins, minister of missions at the church just north of Birmingham. “It’s just sort of word of mouth. We are getting people who find themselves out of money and out of options.”

Houses of worship, from mosques in Texas to Methodist churches in Tennessee, are opening their doors to give refugees shelter.

In Alabama, some churches are also providing examples of what it means to be a Good Samaritan, helping neighbors in need during a national disaster of almost biblical proportions.

Catholic Bishop David Foley of Birmingham said at least one diocese church has a retreat center that will house evacuees referred through the Red Cross.

“We have a system of relief established through Catholic Social Services,” Foley said. “Our concern is more than just immediate care. We have been told to expect a three- to five-year situation of dealing with displaced people.”

At Grace Lutheran Church in Huntsville, refugees from New Orleans gathered around the television in the gym each time a news report gave an update on the storm’s aftermath. They strained to see if they recognized any family members or friends, and to hear some good news.

Brandi Richardson, a dental assistant student from New Orleans, couldn’t stop the tears any more than the levees could keep the floodwaters out of her city.

Richardson said she last talked with her dad on Tuesday (Aug. 27).

“I have no idea what’s happened to him or my grandfather,” she said.

Her family, which arrived in Huntsville Wednesday with nothing but the clothes on their backs, was among 30 Katrina refugees who ended up at the Red Cross shelter at the Huntsville church.

Angela Wallace, a city social worker in New Orleans and a relative of Richardson, said her family was stunned to find themselves hundreds of miles from home and in need of shelter.

“It’s just hard to believe,” she said. “We thought we would only be gone 24 to 48 hours at the most.”

In Baldwin County east of Mobile, after Red Cross officials closed one shelter, churches picked up the slack, opening doors in Mobile and several other cities.

One church hired buses to bring in more than 200 people from Mississippi on Thursday. About 100 of those evacuees eventually ended up at First Baptist Church of Robertsdale near Mobile, said Patrick Velasco, a parishioner who was part of a convoy of five buses chartered by St. Lawrence Catholic Church of Fairhope.

He said the trip was plagued by problems and red tape thicker than London fog. The buses were detained by Mississippi officials for three hours. Eventually the officials let the buses leave, but had a sheriff’s deputy trail them to make sure they really were going to a shelter.

Baldwin County officials were concerned that St. Lawrence’s efforts were straining already-stretched resources.

Leigh Anne Ryals, director of the county’s Emergency Management Agency, said Baldwin is trying to handle the growing number of out-of-state residents coming to the area on their own. Compounding that are the churches and private organizations busing people in and essentially dropping them off at the county’s doorstep, she said.

“We certainly don’t want to dampen all those efforts,” Ryals said. “But they are compounding the challenge.”

Ryals said she is most concerned that the refugees will be left with inadequate shelter if another hurricane strikes in her area.

Velasco said his church will work with emergency officials in the future, but he wants to make another trip to Mississippi as soon as possible.

“There is a definite need,” he said. “We barely scraped the surface.”

“Our great concern is the magnitude of the problem, and that we are going to quickly become overwhelmed by requests for assistance,” said Jenkins, the minister in Gardendale. “But we’ve got to do what we can.”

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Huntsville Times Reporter Yvonne Betowt contributed to this story. Dan Murtaugh and Penelope McClenny and staff of the Mobile Register also contributed.