Church Becomes ‘Point One’ for Community Help After Storm Kristin
When Storm Kristin devastated Portugal in January, Convoy of Hope initiated a response through local church networks in the affected communities, coordinating resources to aid those with urgent needs.
Pastor Bruno, a Convoy of Hope partner living in the Leiria district, witnessed the storm’s impact on his community firsthand.
Kristin hit in the middle of the night, giving people no time to prepare. The concrete pillars of Pastor Bruno’s church were ripped from the ground. Clay roof tiles were torn from homes and scattered in the streets. Winds reached 208 kilometres per hour (130 miles per hour), damaging over 750,000 large trees, leaving many roads impassable. Houses and storefronts flooded and were left without electricity. Without rooftops, people utilised plastic coverings and buckets to try to reduce water damage in their homes.
Across the affected region, Portugal faces direct reconstruction costs of over €4 billion (around $4.7 billion).
Pastor Bruno’s local community had never seen this degree of storm damage. “We don’t get hurricanes,” he said, “No one believed it, because we never had this.”
Survivors were in shock. Nearly 2,000 injuries were reported across Portugal, many resulting from people falling from their roofs in attempts to save their homes. Six people had died in the storm. “Our local hospital couldn’t take any more people,” Pastor Bruno said.
Within 48 hours of the storm, Pastor Bruno called his church members, asking them what they needed. One woman replied, “Pastor, you know what I really need? I need some warm food.” With no electricity, gas, or water, she had no way to make warm meals. “That was so touching,” Pastor Bruno said. “Immediately we got some cooks in the church.”
But when they were cooking her meal, they realized an even greater potential response. “We said, ‘OK, how many more people are out there without any warm food?’” Pastor Bruno said.
“All of a sudden, leaders got together, and we said, ‘We have to do something.’”
Pastor Bruno and other local leaders, spread the word and gathered donations to begin serving their community. They partnered with a local restaurant and volunteers. Within days of the storm, they began giving meals to those in the surrounding villages.
“For about a week, we were giving out 200 warm meals a day. We probably had about 15 to 20 volunteers working nonstop,” said Pastor Bruno. Once local authorities cleared the roads, Pastor Bruno’s team sent aid to those who had been trapped at home. “We had 3 to 4 cars every day going out into the villages and just giving support — through food hampers, through just embracing people, and just being present, because they were so alone.”
Pastor Bruno’s church became first responders to the villages. They served over 1,000 families by providing food and hygiene kits from Convoy, offering emotional support, and replacing housing materials and lost belongings.
“We’re point number one where the local authorities will send people to us [to receive aid],” he said. “We are the only answer to the needs right now, as the local church.”
In the weeks since the storm, Pastor Bruno’s church and Convoy of Hope are still helping people reach recovery. In addition to continuing to meet urgent needs through family food and hygiene packs, the church is repairing the roofs of homes and businesses and working to refurbish homes that have lost essential electrical appliances, like ovens and refrigerators. Gradually, local businesses are reopening, and customers are returning with renewed hope. Soon, Pastor Bruno’s team hopes to rebuild their local church building.
Convoy of Hope stands alongside Pastor Bruno, still responding in Portugal with tangible help and essential supplies after the impact of Storm Kristin.
