{"id":282710,"date":"2026-09-10T04:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T04:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282710\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T04:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T04:30:10","slug":"community-faces-uncertain-future-after-irwin-church-temporarily-closed-due-to-storm-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282710\/","title":{"rendered":"Community faces uncertain future after Irwin church temporarily closed due to storm damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

A community gathered for a prayer vigil on Wednesday after their church in Irwin was slammed by last week’s storms<\/a>. First United Methodist Church of Irwin is temporarily closed after the storms<\/a> on Sept. 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, we had a sewage flood on the whole bottom floor of the church, which closed the entire church due to contamination,” church secretary Kendra Ondish said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

One community member said the church has been through “a lot” over the last couple of years. Ondish added that they had to skip services last weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s not just Sunday services, though,” Ondish said. “We have the food bank, we have food pantry, we have [Narcotics Anonymous], we have [Alcoholics Anonymous], so many are depending on us. They have nowhere to go.”<\/p>\n

While the community spent time praying on Wednesday for its post-storm future, the community also prayed for others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For families who are facing uncertainty about their homes, their work, their finances or their future, provide the help they need,” Rev. Hyung-Suk Joe prayed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s prayer vigil was just what parishioners said they needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It means everything,” one parishioner said. “My church is my life.”<\/p>\n

Wednesday was a chance for everyone to come together after the storms split them apart. However, the church does not know when it will reopen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A community gathered for a prayer vigil on Wednesday after their church in Irwin was slammed by last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,5910],"class_list":["post-282710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-westmoreland-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}