LINCOLN CITY, Ore. — On Wednesday, Governor Brown extended the state of emergency for counties impacted by Oregon's wildfires. That means continued support and extra resources needed for emergency response and recovery efforts.
Hundreds of people are still displaced because of the fires including many in the coastal town of Otis, where fire destroyed 400 homes.
“The needs are huge right now, said Kelli Westmark, pastor of Lincoln City Church of the Nazarene. “We're just a little, tiny church on the Oregon coast, trying to help out.”
From that desire to help and a seed of faith, Westmark and church volunteers have collected and distributed 54,000 pounds of food. They’ve also turned several rooms in the church into holding areas full of clothes, shoes and personal supplies which families can collect as needed. Westmark estimated they’ve helped 1,000 people, so far.
Geri Campbell is one of several church volunteers who’s served those in need while listening to their stories.
“There was an 85-year-old man who came in and said he’d lost 85 years of stuff and he was crying,” said Campbell. “It's hard.”
Westmark said it's difficult to hear so many sad stories every day, but it’s part of their ministry.
“They call it ‘compassion fatigue,’ and we've been at it now for seven weeks,” said Westmark. “So we try to take breaks and rest ourselves because we all went through the fires here.”
The church created an Amazon wish list to help guide people who are interested in donating items. As winter nears and temperatures drop, they say the need continues to grow.
“That's going to be tough,” said Campbell. “That's going to be real tough.”
But then they look around and remember they're not in it alone.
“We could not do it without all the help from around the Northwest,” said Westmark.