FLOOD UPDATE
We have decided it is time to provide an update and in terms of flood relief, what has been happening with the money you have given.
The first thing I should cover is probably the little community of Pacific Junction, which you may recall required urgent assistance with their water filtration system, and then had to be pumped out before residents can return. The Missouri River, which remains high, is one of the culprits that has made recovery for their community difficult. I don’t have a lot of contact with them, but learned that in the last few days, people are finally able to return to their homes there! Yay!!!. The report I received is that there are about 250 homes that have been identified as salvageable in the little community, so that is actually pretty good news. I don’t know how many homes there are that are not salvageable, but after all this time, and knowing the town is not very big anyway, this seems to be a pretty hopeful report. Thanks for your help in giving them a chance.
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| Pacific Junction, Flooding Impact |
Other areas around continue to struggle, especially those near the Missouri. A friend of mine stopped by the other day and reported that he had been driving south of Omaha in the Bellevue area where some of the flooding has been slow to clear out as well. He indicated that he saw water still standing in many places, and that one of the mobile homes had a waterline mark well up to or past the windows. We understand that cleanup there continues to be challenging. We continue to offer encouragement and assistance as we can wherever it is requested or identified through our contacts as a place of need.
Closer to home, we have been providing many supplies to the local Hispanic community, as they have been working to find ways to effect repairs and to secure their future here in Fremont. Weekend after weekend, we have partnered with the local leaders of Hispanic Fremont Strong as one of their key leaders has set up stands to distribute vast amounts of goods to those in need. Literally hundreds of flood bucket supplies assembled by American Baptist Men and Church World Service have gone through our facilities (buckets filled to the brim with LOTS of helpful supplies - and we receive numerous compliments and appreciation for the well filled buckets!)
As the crisis period is shifting into rebuilding, we have been closing down our crisis distribution phase. We sent items west as far as a town called Wood River west of Kearney on I-80, northwest as far as Rosebud in South Dakota, and southeast as far as Hamburg, Iowa, which is another community that continues to wrestle against the floodwaters of the Missouri River. We have now moved into a dual phase of providing funds to assist individuals working to get their homes back in shape, and working with our national American Baptist Men’s Disaster Relief teams who are preparing to come in as a second phase of cleanup for places others have not been able to assist. While a few of our church’s teams have come already, most are yet to arrive, as they tend to wait until after so many of the emergency agencies rush in and out, and then our teams focus on those left out or left behind with work yet to do. They have been identifying locations to work and places out of which to operate in preparation for coming days.
In terms of funding, we have access to money that has been raised through the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering of the American Baptists, but the bulk of our monies have come in through donations directly to the American Baptist Churches of Nebraska and our own relief fund. Many of you may have donated via one of these avenues. We have been dispensing from those funds in a variety of ways. We have provided work clothes and boots for a construction worker whose work clothes had been washed downstream. In the case of another self-employed contractor, whose tools were uninsured, we have provided funding to assist in replacing the power tools that have been damaged because of having been covered in mud and water. We have assisted with utility bills for individuals struggling to make ends meet while covering the unexpected expenses from the flooding. We have given funds to assist with electrical and other home repairs, especially targeting those who have received little or nothing from FEMA, and whose insurance may have a high deductible. In some cases, we have been assisting also individuals who had flood insurance, but whose company refuses to cover the costs because the water entered their homes through the basement rather than the doors or windows….even though there was water surrounding the house! The damage is the same, no matter how the water got in, and we have provided funds to help simply because there is need. We have used the donated monies to purchase barn lime and a blower so that those in mobile homes will be able to protect under their homes against mold growth as they move back in. We have helped purchase insulation and skirting for mobile homes as well. Money has also been used to help children in a variety of ways, including replacing backpacks and school supplies for some children whose homes were flooded.
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| Backpacks distributed by Hispanic Fremont Strong |
Of course, when I say we provided or we helped, I really mean YOU provided and YOU helped, because we are merely passing on the donations that we have received to individuals who have come seeking assistance in a difficult time. We have sought to be careful with the distribution, using the insights of a number of individuals, but also limiting the difficulty people have in obtaining the badly needed funds. Thank you for enabling us to help people who really need it, at a time when they do not have other places to turn for help. The work continues. We will keep you posted as we can. Thanks!
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