The Torres family, who lost everything when their New Jersey apartment was flooded. Photo: Matt Hackworth/CWS

CWS responds to active U.S. storm season

Story by Matt Hackworth/CWS

The year began with two tornadoes that ripped through central Florida within six weeks, setting the pace for a very active spring for Church World Service disaster response.

CWS emergency field staff member Lesli Remaly-Netter had just started the process of bringing together central Florida’s faith-based and community organizations when another storm took her to Enterprise, Alabama, and nearby Americus, Georgia. The storm also caused severe damage in northeastern Georgia, where CWS’s Charlie Molenaar responded. Not long after the southern storms came a devastating nor’easter that brought record rainfall, flooding, and disaster declarations to suburban communities in the New York City area. (Pictured at right is the Torres family, who lost everything when their New Jersey apartment was flooded. They found shelter and CWS blankets at nearby Bound Brook Presbyterian Church.)

“With so many emergencies, it’s certainly set a brisk pace for our long-term recovery work,” said Linda Reed Brown, CWS associate director for emergency response. “It’s especially important to those communities that didn’t receive federal help.”

Dumas, Arkansas, never saw a federal disaster declaration, even though a Feb. 24 tornado destroyed or damaged 150 homes and left nearly 800 people out of work. CWS’s Lura Cayton worked with established community groups in Dumas to find and assist vulnerable populations. CWS also responded to tornadoes that struck Holly, Colorado, and Elmwood, Oklahoma.

CWS’s domestic disaster work even reached across the U.S.-Mexico border following a May 8 tornado in Eagle Pass, Texas, that also significantly damaged neighboring Piedras Negras, Mexico. CWS’s Heriberto Martinez worked with Spanish-speaking survivors in the area, where a CWS-supported long-term recovery group is taking shape. Farther north, CWS’s Tom Davis joined Nechama (Jewish Disaster Response) and other voluntary organizations in responding to flooding in Minnesota. CWS also deployed personnel following the May 4 tornado that obliterated the town of Greensburg, Kansas.

In all, CWS responded to 10 U.S. disasters within five months, even before the start of the 2007 hurricane season. And, CWS is continuing to closely monitor rebuilding efforts along the U.S. Gulf Coast, following the 2005 double-punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“We want to help the long-term recovery groups along the Gulf as much as possible before they face the summer and fall storms and hurricanes,” CWS recovery grants administrator Bonnie Vollmering said.

To help Gulf Coast residents button up for the hurricane season, CWS is overseeing a $4 million grant with Habitat for Humanity International. The partnership will return more than 600 Gulf Coast families to their homes by providing long-term recovery groups with grants of up to $10,000 per approved home.

“We’re trying to make sure the local long-term recovery groups have the money they need to help people in the most dire of circumstances,” Reed Brown said. “The hope is that their homes will be dry and livable when it matters most.”