FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 17, 2007
Quiet Start to '07 Hurricane Season No Indicator of Needs
CRWRC Media Contact: Beth DeGraff 616-648-7821
CRWRC Disaster Response Services Director: Bill Adams 616-560-2782
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH: "Before CRWRC's Disaster Response volunteers came, we had little hope that we would ever get back into our home," says a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. "They gave us hope...and cared enough to spend time with us."
While the first six weeks of the 2007 hurricane season that began on June first have been comparatively quiet, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee's (www.crwrc.org) Bill Adams reports that within its Disaster Response Services (DRS) unit, activities surrounding existing relief efforts are greater than in a typical year - including a "Home-Building Blitz" will begin this Fall in the Gulf Coast region.
"There continue to be tremendous needs in the areas impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," says Adams, DRS Director. "And there also are a number of communities across the U.S. that experienced major flooding and tornados this Spring."
This Summer, CRWRC-DRS is sending Needs Assessment Teams to four regions of the U.S. to identify unmet needs and help disaster-affected communities with recovery. These response areas are Hancock and Greene Counties in Miss. where CRWRC is responding to Hurricane Katrina damage; Lady Lake, Florida, and Eagle Pass, Texas, to assess tornado destruction; and Aberdeen, South Dakota, where severe flooding has left many with basic needs unmet.
In addition to providing disaster survivors with opportunities to register their still unmet needs with local organizations at Needs Assessment Centers, churches and communities from across North America are sending work groups into disaster areas on an ongoing basis.
"Nearly two hundred work groups have gutted houses, replaced roofs and drywall, and painted homes on the Gulf Coast through CRWRC in the last eighteen months," says DRS Group Manager Art Opperwall.
Volunteers from ages eight to 80 will continue to work throughout the summer. Teams from Colorado, North Carolina, Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan have served disaster survivors in Gulfport, Mississippi, through CRWRC's work group program.
Starting October 1, 2007, CRWRC will begin a year-long Home Building Blitz, with plans to build ten new homes in the Katrina area using all volunteer labor.
"We are challenging churches and clusters of churches to commit volunteers and funding to build a 900-square-foot home for a needy family displaced by Katrina," Opperwall says.
A group of churches from Holland, Michigan, was the first to accept a 3-week home-building challenge to kick off the event. Skilled and unskilled volunteers from nearly 30 churches are being organized to build a home in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in partnership with CRWRC-DRS and the Hattiesburg long-term recovery organization next October.
The Blitz will focus on rebuilding homes in communities along the Gulf Coast that lack adequate volunteer and financial resources to meet their own needs.
To find out more about group, community, or church involvement in CRWRC's Home Building Blitz, contact DRS Group Manager Art Opperwall at 1-800-848-5818 or email opperwaa@crcna.org.
For more information or to give a financial donation to CRWRC Disaster Response Services, visit www.crwrc.org or call 1-800-55-CRWRC. In Canada, call 1-800-730-3490. CRWRC is a Christian, non-profit organization of the Christian Reformed Church in North America providing a ministry of development, relief, and justice education to people in need around the world.
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