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American Morning
Interview with Jan Burlison, Lisa Sullivan
Aired September 26, 2002 - 07:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get back to our series quickly now, "Real People and Their Money."
Back in 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit southern Florida, devastating, too, the Redlands Community United Methodist Church in Homestead. Since then, the congregation has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild, and they did it on their own. No federal or state money.
Jan Burlison led that process. She is live in Homestead, also with the church pastor, Reverend Lisa Sullivan.
Great to have both of you -- good morning.
JAN BURLISON, HURRICANE ANDREW SURVIVOR: Good morning.
REV. LISA SULLIVAN, REDLANDS COMMUNITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Good morning.
HEMMER: Hey, Jan, take us back. What do you remember about your house when that storm hit? And then, what do you remember about going to the church that day?
BURLISON: Well, the house was -- we sustained quite a bit of damage. And when coming to the church, upon driving up, it was just breathtaking. It -- I instantly numbed, because it was just a pile of lumber laying there, kind of under the roof that had moved to the side, but it was really just a pile of boards.
HEMMER: The reason we are doing this story is because of how the church recovered, and we're going to see some of the pictures of the church from 10 years ago. But as we look at them, Jan, how much insurance money did you get? How much money did you get from FEMA?
BURLISON: Oh, we didn't get any funds from FEMA. We did have insurance on our church, and we got the full amount of the insurance, which was approximately $350,000, which seemed like it would be adequate. We always felt like we had adequate coverage. In fact, it really was not adequate, because we couldn't rebuild a building that had been built in 1913. To build a present-day structure under present-day building codes was quite a different story. So, we really ran short of funding.
HEMMER: So, you were short how much money, then? How short, Jan?
BURLISON: Well, the cost of the building project kept increasing, so it ended up being almost 900,000.
HEMMER: Wow!
BURLISON: So, we were short by several hundred thousand.
HEMMER: All right, tell us the best part of this story right now. How did you make up the difference?
BURLISON: A lot of people got together. People from all over the country helped us. We had gifts and donations coming in from everywhere, because of the devastating story. And we got together in a community effort and raised lots of money. We had bake sales, vegetable sales -- you name it, we did it.
HEMMER: Wow! To the reverend, then. I'm curious to know and 10 years later down the road here, have you changed your insurance policy? What sort of protection have you taken now, knowing that storms like these don't hit that often, but indeed they come and paralyze a whole lot of people.
SULLIVAN: Yes, our insurance is better now. In the United Methodist Church, we have insurance through the church now, and we feel we are equipped for whatever will happen in the future.
HEMMER: Yes. How has it changed the congregation? I got to think it brought a lot of folks together.
SULLIVAN: Yes, it has. Really, it was a team effort. Everyone in the congregation decided that they would share with the community the message of faith, hope and love, and that we were not going to give up. We would rebuild out church.
In fact, our church historian, when she first saw the disaster, her comments were, "Well, we'll just have to clean up this mess and start over." And I believe that the faith of the church community and of our greater community in the United Methodist Church, with all of their help, we really were able to give a message of hope. We put a sign out in front of the church that said, "Don't give up hope, we will rebuild our church."
HEMMER: I would imagine you guys have a whole lot of advice for other folks out there, too, especially the folks along the Gulf Coast, given Isidore's condition.
Thanks, Reverend Lisa Sullivan, great to talk to you in southern Florida, and Jan Burlison as well. A wonderful story -- thanks for sharing it with us, OK?
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired September 26, 2002 - 07:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get back to our series quickly now, "Real People and Their Money."
Back in 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit southern Florida, devastating, too, the Redlands Community United Methodist Church in Homestead. Since then, the congregation has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild, and they did it on their own. No federal or state money.
Jan Burlison led that process. She is live in Homestead, also with the church pastor, Reverend Lisa Sullivan.
Great to have both of you -- good morning.
JAN BURLISON, HURRICANE ANDREW SURVIVOR: Good morning.
REV. LISA SULLIVAN, REDLANDS COMMUNITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Good morning.
HEMMER: Hey, Jan, take us back. What do you remember about your house when that storm hit? And then, what do you remember about going to the church that day?
BURLISON: Well, the house was -- we sustained quite a bit of damage. And when coming to the church, upon driving up, it was just breathtaking. It -- I instantly numbed, because it was just a pile of lumber laying there, kind of under the roof that had moved to the side, but it was really just a pile of boards.
HEMMER: The reason we are doing this story is because of how the church recovered, and we're going to see some of the pictures of the church from 10 years ago. But as we look at them, Jan, how much insurance money did you get? How much money did you get from FEMA?
BURLISON: Oh, we didn't get any funds from FEMA. We did have insurance on our church, and we got the full amount of the insurance, which was approximately $350,000, which seemed like it would be adequate. We always felt like we had adequate coverage. In fact, it really was not adequate, because we couldn't rebuild a building that had been built in 1913. To build a present-day structure under present-day building codes was quite a different story. So, we really ran short of funding.
HEMMER: So, you were short how much money, then? How short, Jan?
BURLISON: Well, the cost of the building project kept increasing, so it ended up being almost 900,000.
HEMMER: Wow!
BURLISON: So, we were short by several hundred thousand.
HEMMER: All right, tell us the best part of this story right now. How did you make up the difference?
BURLISON: A lot of people got together. People from all over the country helped us. We had gifts and donations coming in from everywhere, because of the devastating story. And we got together in a community effort and raised lots of money. We had bake sales, vegetable sales -- you name it, we did it.
HEMMER: Wow! To the reverend, then. I'm curious to know and 10 years later down the road here, have you changed your insurance policy? What sort of protection have you taken now, knowing that storms like these don't hit that often, but indeed they come and paralyze a whole lot of people.
SULLIVAN: Yes, our insurance is better now. In the United Methodist Church, we have insurance through the church now, and we feel we are equipped for whatever will happen in the future.
HEMMER: Yes. How has it changed the congregation? I got to think it brought a lot of folks together.
SULLIVAN: Yes, it has. Really, it was a team effort. Everyone in the congregation decided that they would share with the community the message of faith, hope and love, and that we were not going to give up. We would rebuild out church.
In fact, our church historian, when she first saw the disaster, her comments were, "Well, we'll just have to clean up this mess and start over." And I believe that the faith of the church community and of our greater community in the United Methodist Church, with all of their help, we really were able to give a message of hope. We put a sign out in front of the church that said, "Don't give up hope, we will rebuild our church."
HEMMER: I would imagine you guys have a whole lot of advice for other folks out there, too, especially the folks along the Gulf Coast, given Isidore's condition.
Thanks, Reverend Lisa Sullivan, great to talk to you in southern Florida, and Jan Burlison as well. A wonderful story -- thanks for sharing it with us, OK?
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
