wfn.org | Flood recovery program helps residents overcome disaster

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 3, 2000  News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212)870-3803·New York
10-71B{045}

By Susan Kim* 
      
BRECKENRIDGE, Minn. (UMNS) -- A few basements and homes still need repairs,
a few sump pumps need to be installed, and some people need help preparing
for the next flood -- if and when it happens. 

But considering that 90 percent of the homes in this community sustained
water damage in the Red River Valley floods in spring 1997, recovery could
almost be described as complete -- or as near completion that disaster
recovery ever gets. 
      
People in Breckenridge and scores of other towns still vividly remember the
trauma of that disaster. 
      
"I could step outside my office door and feel the pain in the air, without
even talking to anybody. It was a presence," said Barbara Vondal, a Head
Start counselor. 

Vondal also is a board member of Lend A Helping Hand, a flood recovery
program that helped 1,269 flood-affected families and individuals in
Richland County, N.D., and Wilkin County, Minn. The program has its
headquarters in Breckenridge United Methodist Church.
 
Lend A Helping Hand was finally able to end its recovery work officially
last fall. In October, the Rev. Terry Tilton, chairman, closed the books and
sent a letter to supporters calling the group "the unsung story of the flood
of '97."
 
Tilton, who also serves as pastor at the Breckenridge and Foxhome United
Methodist churches, oversaw more than 30 months of intensive rebuilding and
recovery work. Lend A Helping Hand distributed some $1.3 million in direct
aid to survivors, and coordinated more than 1,130 volunteers who contributed
22,670 hours of labor, including lifting more than 1 million sandbags and
rebuilding hundreds of homes. 

Deanna Ruggiero, administrator and casework supervisor, said that, while
these numbers are impressive, they don't move her as much as the personal
cards and letters from survivors. 
      
One woman wrote, "We were just going to leave the house as it was until Lend
A Helping Hand offered assistance." Her husband, who suffers from asthma,
emphysema and cancer, developed mold allergies from the condition of their
basement.
 
"Up until my last day of work, clients were calling to ask me for a
forwarding address so that they can send me pictures of their new homes,"
Ruggiero said. "That is really special."
 
Lend A Helping Hand could not have accomplished so much without interfaith,
community, business and individual support, Tilton added. 

"In good measure, this would not have happened without the financial
contributions of 86 foundations, churches, church groups, civic
organizations and individuals who gave so generously in compassion and
caring," he said. 

Vondal characterized the experience of organizing flood recovery as
"excruciatingly painful, affirming, uplifting and gratifying. 

"You would discover, for example, an elderly lady who was living in her
porch. Her home had been flooded and her basement was still full of water.
She didn't know what to do, and she was scared, asking, 'If my home is
condemned, where will I go? I don't have enough money to buy a new home or
build one.' "
 
While Lend A Helping Hand members were well aware of the needs surrounding
them, they didn't expect those needs to last quite so long. 

"The longevity was a complete surprise to me," said Rick Steckler, another
board member and also president of Community First National Bank. At a
one-year anniversary commemoration event, more than 600 residents lit
candles and floated them down the river. At that point, recovery work was
actually on the rise. 
      
"It took so long partly because it was hard to get contractors to bid on
small jobs of $1,000 to $10,000," said Steckler. Volunteers who aren't
licensed carpenters or plumbers are often prohibited by state or county
building codes from doing work that requires inspection. 
      
"Also, people wanted to go through the healing process and didn't want to
face the fact that they had to do something with their homes. They didn't
want their lives interrupted again. So they were handling it by ignoring
it," he added. 
      
As many months went by, volunteers became more difficult to recruit, but as
volunteer Lloyd Imker put it: "Thank God there's some that want to do it." 
      
Carolyn Black volunteered in Breckenridge with a United Methodist church
group for two years in a row. "They invited us back, and we thought that was
quite a compliment," she said. "We painted a house for an older couple, did
some basement work, jacked up a sagging porch.
 
"Especially when we went back the second time, we could see that people were
still really in need -- proud people who just said 'we'll fix it ourselves'
and didn't have the time, energy, or money to do it. That second year we
invited our friends whose homes we worked on the year before. The tears
flowed freely."
 
Steve Bresnahan, executive director for the Diocese of St. Cloud Catholic
Charities, helped provide counselors for the area -- a service that was a
challenge to administer because so many residents were fiercely independent.
"People are part of the original hardy pioneer stock," he said. Catholic
Charities continues to provide help as needed. 
      
Vondal said an oft-repeated comment she heard was: well, yes, I had some
damage, but so-and-so has it much worse. 
      
"It was as if people were thinking 'if mine is not the worst disaster, then
I don't have a right to grieve.' This is the original 'pull yourself up by
your own bootstraps' culture. Stoicism is revered." 

But Lend A Helping Hand continued to reach out for nearly three years -- and
is still quietly helping families. The group's motto is: "The difference
between a helping hand and an outstretched palm is a twist of a wrist."
 
Patience and persistence paid off. Said Vondal: "I believe there were almost
no people who didn't end up in a home comparable to the home they lived in
that was flooded."
       
# # #

*Kim is a writer for Disaster News Network, where this story first appeared.
The Web site is www.disasterresponse.net.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://www.umc.org/umns