{"id":3558,"date":"2017-11-07T09:12:30","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T17:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/scientologybeliefs\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2017-11-06T17:30:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T01:30:06","slug":"scientology-hurricane-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scientologybeliefs\/2017\/11\/scientology-hurricane-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving Irma Together\u00ad\u2014A Scientologist\u2019s View from the Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The work of the Church of Scientology and Scientologists in Clearwater before, during and after Hurricane Irma by Scientologist David Aden. Published courtesy of STAND (Scientologists\u00a0Taking Action Against Discrimination<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

My family\u2014including my wife, son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren\u2014recently survived\u00a0Hurricane Irma<\/a>\u00a0here in Clearwater, Florida.<\/p>\n

\"Scientology<\/p>\n

We\u2019re among the lucky; we had very little damage to our property and our electricity was back on within 24 hours. But, though the storm was less intense in Clearwater than expected, others were not so lucky, working out how to repair property damage or handle injuries or\u00a0enduring days without power<\/a>\u00a0at the peak of an often sweltering time of year.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to minimize what others are going through\u2014there remains a tremendous amount of work to put life back on track for everyone\u2014but I do want to comment on how impressed I was with the Clearwater community of Scientologists, including the\u00a0staff of the Church\u2019s religious retreat<\/a>, and how they rose to the occasion.<\/p>\n

News outlets\u00a0have been covering<\/a>\u00a0the work the Church did before the storm to protect local businesses by\u00a0boarding up all the downtown shop windows<\/a>. No one asked\u2014it was just a task taken on by Church members and involved the contribution of many hours of labor\u2014but it was only doable at all because of the good fortune (or good planning) that resulted in the Church having the plywood needed to board up and protect all local businesses. I can attest that none was available from my usual, local supplier.<\/p>\n

While that contribution ended up playing out in the media, the behind-the-scenes I saw was more personal. It was the way the Church opened its doors to help house upwards of 3,000 people and hundreds of pets during the storm. For me, it was reassuring to know that my grandkids were in a safe building that had emergency power and that they\u2019d be able to eat and sleep in relative comfort no matter what happened outside. I\u2019m sure the same was true for many others, including the owners of all the dogs, cats and even iguanas who didn\u2019t have to worry about leaving their pets behind.<\/p>\n

Despite the stress of the situation, the general mood of all those who\u2019d left their homes was positive. There were no ruffled feathers, everyone was cooperative and remarkably upbeat, focused on getting through and then moving on to repair whatever needed to be repaired. Such calm in the midst of an unfolding disaster doesn\u2019t \u201cjust happen.\u201d It takes\u00a0work, planning and a willingness to go above and beyond<\/a>. All that was evident in the Church staff and volunteers who answered questions, made and served food and helped with everyone\u2019s needs. And I\u2019m sure all of it was done on far less than the usual eight hours of sleep a night.<\/p>\n

The day after the storm, I saw upwards of 50 or 60 people in the yellow shirts that identify members of the Church\u2019s Volunteer Minister team\u00a0hard at work in Clearwater\u2019s Coachman Park<\/a>\u00a0cleaning up the debris. I doubt if they\u2019d been tasked by the city or the park administrators. I\u2019m sure to them it was an obvious task that needed doing. So they did it.<\/p>\n

\"Hot<\/p>\n

I heard that on the day after, a contingent of hundreds of Volunteer Ministers helped clean up the Greenwood neighborhood\u2014an area of town that has often been overlooked over the years\u2014and I believe was still without power. The clean-up was accompanied by\u00a0a BBQ for the residents<\/a>, a concrete way to help those who had probably missed more than one hot meal in recent days.<\/p>\n

Obviously, many others besides Scientologists worked themselves ragged preparing for the storm and have been working diligently ever since to make things right; the spirit of help and generosity has not been limited to a single group. But I can only say that I am proud and thankful for my fellow Scientologists\u2014those who helped my family and me, and the group that has continued to help everyone in our area recover from what could have been a far worse disaster.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The work of the Church of Scientology and Scientologists in Clearwater before, during and after Hurricane Irma by Scientologist David Aden. Published courtesy of STAND (Scientologists\u00a0Taking Action Against Discrimination) My family\u2014including my wife, son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren\u2014recently survived\u00a0Hurricane Irma\u00a0here in Clearwater, Florida. We\u2019re among the lucky; we had very little damage to our property […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1340,1320,1308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-activities","category-scientologists","category-scientology-humanitarian-campaigns"],"yoast_head":"\nSurviving Irma Together\u00ad\u2014A Scientologist\u2019s View from the Ground<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The work of the Church of Scientology and Scientologists in Clearwater before, during and after Hurricane Irma by Scientologist David Aden.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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