Last week, the Lewis County Gospel Mission was flooded and left with damage to its supplies and equipment.
The mission is the only location in Chehalis that offers free meals every day. As long as it is out of commission, folks who are homeless, on low incomes, have been displaced by flooding or simply need some extra help will have to go elsewhere for services.
In the wake of the disaster, Salvation Army Centralia and Gather Church in Centralia have stepped up to provide for those needs, offering more food and access to clothing and hygiene products.
“As far as the banding together of resources, it’s kind of what we do. When one is down, we all come together and help,” said Patty Howard, associate pastor at Gather Church. “With the Salvation Army, we’ve been talking about what we can do together as far as filling that void.”
Representatives from both organizations said more hot meals would be available in the coming weeks for people from all across Lewis County or from anywhere else and that as needs continued to arise in the aftermath of flooding, services would be expanded.
“We know in major events that there is an initial like, ‘let's get out, let's get assistance out, let’s kind of triage everyone. And then as things start to settle, people are still going to have needs. It's not going to go away, even though this wasn't a catastrophic event, it was still an event. And so we're here to stay and we're here to continue to support people and if they need clean-up kits, we have that. We’re able and willing to provide food,” said Gin Pack, captain at the Centralia Salvation Army. “That helps lessen the burden so that they can focus their financial responsibilities on getting them back to where they were.”
The Red Cross on Thursday night opened an emergency shelter at Centralia Middle School that was later moved to the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds. Over Thursday night, about 25 people stayed in the shelter. By the end of Friday, more than 50 people had sought refuge there.
The Salvation Army Centralia in the last week has cooked and distributed over 800 meals for flood victims and first responders in coordination with the Red Cross.
The Salvation Army, at 303 N. Gold St., Centralia, also has a winter overnight shelter open throughout the season from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., that the nonprofit is keeping open 24 hours a day at the moment as another way to assist victims of the flood.
“(With roads closed due to flooding), we did have either staff cut off, not being able to get into work or they were at work and weren't able to leave. And so we had some faithful, wonderful staff people that of course don't want to ever see services diminished or cut down, so we had people sleeping in offices to ensure that we were able to ramp up,” Pack said.
The dedication of staff and volunteers at these organizations is what makes their efforts possible and more volunteers or donations are always welcome. For more information on Gather, visit its website at https://www.gatherchurch.com/. For the Salvation Army Centralia, head to https://centralia.salvationarmy.org/centralias/.
“We’re in a great community and as sad as it is when the flood happens, our community has a huge heart and it’s beautiful,” Howard said. “We’re just going to take care of each other.”
