Flood Work Continues.... the Update

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.

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.  

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!

FLOOD STATUS - FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, FREMONT NEBRASKA

WHAT’S GOING ON?

Now that we are on the move, and I have a few minutes I can sit and jot a note, I wanted to provide an quick update and explanation for those of you who have been away or not had the chance to learn exactly what our church is doing.

First, know that our church building and parsonage were untouched by the flood waters. Individuals in our congregation have been impacted in various ways, and only part of the immediate area was flooded and impacted by the waters, but some of that area included many of our poorer residents.  Outlying homes and towns are also in a variety of situations.  There were locations designated as official shelters, and our church’s first response was to help undergird those shelters with individual support, as well as individuals volunteering around the community in a variety of roles.

Early Sunday morning, we accepted the role of being a distribution hub for the Texas-Louisiana Coalition "Center for People in Need"  in partnership with relief organization No Town Left Behind.  The goal of the ministries we have partnered with is to identify and provide support and assistance for individuals and communities that may be missed by the larger, more focused relief efforts.   It was these groups who connected our facility with the People in Need group from Lincoln who so generously provided our first round of supplies.

We have designated space in our facilities to house supplies as they arrive, which began yesterday. We have built shelving (and are building more) to store them on as they go out.  At the same time, we are building connections with individuals in nearby communities such as Waterloo, Valley, North Bend, Morse Bluff and Hooper, in addition to connections with people at the forefront of ministry here in Fremont, to make sure that the provisions that come to our shelves are routed to people who need it most and who are not receiving or may not qualify for other aid, or who may not be physically able to go somewhere to let their needs be known.   Because there is so much good work being done in Fremont already, our job here will be to help fill in the gaps that are missed, and to help support those communities and individuals beyond our city limits who are in need of help.  We are not setting up the facility as a “food bank” sort of location, but rather a warehouse available to other local agencies and individuals who are in need of supplies for people who have asked them for assistance.  

 Financially, on Sunday night church leadership met to establish plans and policies in regard to financial donations that may come our way.  They established a separate relief fund into which all those monies will be deposited, and guidelines for distribution.   Any paypal donations go directly and entirely to that fund.  The goal, again, is to meet needs of people with as little red tape for them as possible.  A team approach was established to consider and disburse funds (usually in the form of direct pay or vouchers rather than handing out cash).   Again, these funds may be disbursed because of personal contacts people in our church have with others in need, or because of referred needs that come to us from trusted local groups who understand that we are trying to help with the “forgotten” people.  We will also be expending funds to enable this work to be done (purchase of gas to transport supplies if needed, etc.)

In addition, our own American Baptist denominational family will be offering support in the form of funding, volunteers and especially cleanup supplies, which we will be routing directly to people in need via the same contacts we are building throughout the area.  Our denominational family is notoriously generous with their assistance in situations like these.  They have already committed 100 “flood buckets” to get us started, and more will follow as needed (that first 100, which we will receive in coming days, are already spoken for…the need is real).  Thanks to them, also, in advance.

 We just want to be as transparent as possible, so that those of you who have partnered with us in any way, know exactly what is going on with the support you provide.  If you have any questions about how we are handling things or the type of needs that we meeting, do not hesitate to call, email or message us.  But do me a favor….wait till next week to ask….this week is already too full!

God bless all of you for your prayers and assistance.  Pastor Richard