FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CRWRC-US Media Contact: Beth DeGraff 616-648-7821
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.: Even as search and rescue teams continue to seek signs of life today in the debris that was the town of Greensburg, Kansas, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee's (www.crwrc.org) Disaster Response Director, Bill Adams prepares to leave for the Greensburg area to help plan emergency response efforts for the survivors of Friday's devastating tornado.
CRWRC will be providing support to the Kansas State Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), which will gather in a nearby Haviland school building at 10 A.M. on Tuesday, May 8, 2007, to begin planning for the recovery.
"The town is completely flattened," CRWRC's Adams states, "so it's unlikely we'll be sending our Rapid Response Teams, which often can provide survivors with clean up and short-term repair assistance. Sadly, in Greensburg, there doesn't appear to be much left to repair."
This week's coordination meetings will determine both the shape of the ongoing emergency response and the feasibility of long-term reconstruction and rebuilding in Greensburg. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army have been finding shelter and providing food for the evacuated survivors.
Thus far this Spring, in addition to continuing work in the Gulf Coast, restoring homes damaged and destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, CRWRC has had Rapid Response Teams in Lady Lake, Fla., helping to clean up after the Ground Hog Day tornadoes. Needs Assessment Teams in Enterprise, Ala., and Americus, Geo., are also helping with assessments after tornadoes devastated those communities.
As CRWRC volunteers and staff prepare to respond to the Kansas devastation, additional Rapid Response teams are planning a departure to Paterson, New Jersey, where flood waters from the mid-April Nor'easter inundated the entire Eastern Seaboard of the U. S. As they begin clean-up efforts for the recent floods, CRWRC volunteers will be housed by Madison Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Paterson, New Jersey.
"We've had a number of serious early storms in the U. S. in 2007," Adams explains. "This spring's storms have already caused enough damage to require our help for years to come -- but we need to respond quickly."
CRWRC's Bill Adams will be available for interviews by the media before he leaves for Greensburg, Kansas, on Monday, May 7, from 7 A.M. to 2 P.M.
CRWRC is seeking financial support for CRWRC's Spring Storms '07 response. Tax-deductible gifts can be given by calling 1-800-55-CRWRC, or online at www.crwrc.org. Checks should be made out to "CRWRC", earmarked "Spring Storms 2007," and sent to 2850 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI, 49560.
For more information about CRWRC's disaster response services, visit www.crwrc.org or call 1-800-55-CRWRC. CRWRC is a Christian non-profit organization ministering in development, relief, and justice education with people in need around the world since 1962. CRWRC is present in 30 countries and has an international reputation for "living justice, and loving mercy."
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Beth DeGraff US Media and Justice Contact 2850 Kalamazoo SE Grand Rapids, MI 49560 degraffb@crcna.org ph: 616-241-1691 x4191 fax: 616-724-0806
"If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you'll lose it, but if you let that life go, you'll get life on God's terms." Luke 17:33 The Message