wfn.org | Volunteers keep returning to storm-struck areas

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

March 6, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-71B{119}

NOTE: This is the second of two parts. The first is UMNS story #118. The
reports are accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #120, which editors may
want to use as an information box.		

A UMNS Special Report
By Linda Bloom*

In North Carolina, the Rev. Butch Huffman has found the key to ensuring a
continuous pool of volunteers for rebuilding homes damaged by Hurricane
Floyd: get them to come just once.

"When a team comes, they will usually come back," he explained. "Once you
come and you see the extent of it (damage), you can't go away and forget
it."

After North Carolina was devastated by Floyd and other storms last fall, the
United Methodist North Carolina Annual Conference established four regional
offices and 15 satellite areas to coordinate the denomination's relief and
recovery efforts. 

"At each of these places, they may be working anywhere within a 30-mile
radius," said Huffman, who is coordinator of volunteers in mission for the
conference.

The amount of damage and length of time floodwaters remained in homes varied
from community to community, so work is being done in all phases of
recovery. Some families are waiting for a buyout, others are finally able to
clean out their homes, and still others are back in homes that have been
completely gutted and rebuilt.

As of the end of February, Huffman said, about 11,000 homes were in the
buyout process, another 20,000 were awaiting minor repairs - "where you
could go in and do everything in one day" - and 6,000 to 7,000 homes
required a major overhaul. That kind of work would take a team of six to 10
people about three weeks to accomplish per house, he noted.

So far, the North Carolina Conference has welcomed volunteer teams from 29
different states. "Some come for one day, some come for a week, some come
for a month," he said.

Barbara Tripp, director of recovery operations for the conference, said 138
teams already have been scheduled for 2000. "Once we assign them, most
people fall in love with the families and the communities and they keep
coming back," she added.

The Western North Carolina Conference has established housing for 100
volunteers in the Tarboro area, according to the Rev. Jack Owenby, director
of volunteer response ministries. The volunteer teams also encompass
Presbyterians, Mennonites and members of a few other denominations.

The rebuilding effort there began in earnest on Jan. 5. "Right now, we're
running 200 volunteers a day," Owenby said. "By the middle of March, we
should have 26 homes rebuilt, with the families back in them."

The goal is to complete close to 150 houses a year and finish the recovery
effort in two to two and a half years. "If the volunteers hold up at the
present rate, it may be sooner," he said.

In Virginia, United Methodists have focused their recovery efforts on
Franklin City and the surrounding counties of Isle of Wight, Southampton and
Suffolk. The Virginia Conference Disaster Response Team has established a
permanent office at High Street United Methodist Church in Franklin. 

About 1,600 volunteers - including repeat volunteers -- had invested 24,762
hours in recovery work as of the end of February, according to the Rev.
Frank Jennings, team coordinator. The average has been about 300 volunteers
a month. 

"In February, we exceeded that easily," he said. "Just in two Saturdays
alone, we had 190 people."

About 27 families have been able to return to their homes "due to some type
of effort from us," he said, and another 25 houses are in different phases
of rebuilding. The effort involves strong ecumenical cooperation and has
gained enough confidence in the community that the United Methodist agency
was the first to receive grants from private sector funding for residential
rehabilitation.

# # #

*Bloom is news director of United Methodist News Service's New York office.
 

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United Methodist News Service
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