Close To Home!

A volunteer group from Sunrise,Fl drove down to Clewiston to help the communities of Hendry and Glades county. There were 17 volunteers, who had a lot of heart. While they were here with us they helped demolish a mobile home in Moore Haven,they replaced damaged drywall at Mr. Elijah's home, they installed exterior trim as well as did some painting at Mr. Leopold's home, and they tarped Ms. valerie's roof. You can say this group from Florida was as busy as bees! Even though they were very busy they made time to attend one of the local Pentecostal churches for their Sunday service, which they greatly enjoyed.We thank this group for coming and for all their hard work. May God bless you in everything you do.

All The Way From Colorado!!

A volunteer group from Vail, Colorado came down to America's Sweetest town to a lend helping hand in the recovery of families who had damages due to Hurricane Wilma. There were a total of 26 volunteers who blessed us with their presence. While the group was here they were able to cut down and remove some enourmous trees that were severly damaged and posed a major risk to our community. Ms. Mia, the homeowner, is extreamly grateful for the group being able to assist her with the debris. Not only was this group removing enourmous trees, but they were also demolitioning a mobile home in Moore Haven for and elderly woman named Willie. The group had such a wonderful experience that the youth Pastor said when he returned home his story sparked an intetrest in his fellow church members to start planning more mission trips, so they can continue to help others. Thanks guys for your hard work and making a difference in our community. May God Bless you.

Reflections from the Front Line of Hurricane Wilma Recovery

Reflections From the Front Line of Hurricane Wilma Recovery
John Hicks, Pastor, First United Methodist Church of Clewiston

Shooting across south Florida and strengthening in the gulf, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just outside New Orleans, wiping out entire neighborhoods, flooding houses up to their roofs, swamping
Mississippi's beachfront and blowing out windows in hospitals, hotels and high-rises. The community of Clewiston came together to help out our neighbors to the north, with the churches holding a benefit concert to help the hurricane victims. Little did we realize that in less than a month, we would be at ground zero when a lady named Wilma worked her way across our community. Because of the intensity of the damage on the Gulf Coast, our crisis situation didn’t receive much headline news. Wilma wasn’t supposed to be as wicked as she was. Like many others, the ferocity of Wilma surprised me. Having grown up in Florida, hurricanes are not new to me. I wasn’t really worried. We were supposed to be on the “less severe” side. I prepared. I stored up ice and water in case they were needed. I made
sure that my generator was working. I purchased chocolate for my wife. I boarded up the windows. I was ready – or so I thought. I knew we were in trouble when the winds took out the columns on the front of the parsonage
and blew out a shuttered window.

We were blessed with a community coming together after the storm. Within hours after the storm passed, church members had come by and we had secured 4 by 4 ‘ s for support where the columns had been.
We went out to check on the elderly and others in our community who might need help. We had downed trees and flooding all around us. There was no telling how long the power would be out. Although our parsonage and office took a major hit, the rest of our facilities made it through with
minimal damage. The other larger churches in our community didn’t make out as well. We became a center for relief.

As a precaution before the storm, I had set aside a store of ice and food and had secured several generators to take to houses to recharge freezers in case power went out. Several people joked with me about the amount of supplies and materials I was hoarding before the storm. They were joking no more. With the church on bottled gas and having supplies, we set ourselves up as a distribution and feeding center, helping people and cooking meals from frozen-but-thawing food donated from home freezers. Supplies, however, fell short of the needs. But God is good and God’s people responded to His call for help. The strength of the United Methodist
connectional system really showed itself. The call for help had hardly gone out before churches started responding. Our Life Enrichment Center was set up as a distribution center as well as a supply source for satellite distribution centers for other churches around the community. Every day we emptied the supplies in the center. Every day additional supplies arrived so we could continue to fulfill needs.

But more than the supplies, love and support and prayers came our way. Special people did special things. One group brought us supplies, a filled hundred gallon hand pump gas tank, a chest freezer full of ice,
and generators to power the freezer and our church refrigerators. Another couple brought supplies but also asked what special things they could bring my wife and me. A work team showed up to take care of the
parsonage needs so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. A number of people came and cut up many of the large downed trees on the church property.
A young girl from Indiana, PA. by the name of Eliza heard that our youth’s pumpkin patch had been destroyed, and put forth an effort at her home church to raise money to help our youth go on their mission trip
that the pumpkin patch would have helped support. When a hotel renovated, a couple from the coast collected and delivered numerous truck loads of beds and then recliners to replace those lost by people in the storm. These are just some of the hundreds who have touched our lives and the lives of those in our community. It’s hard to believe that 20 months have come and gone since Hurricane Wilma struck. I think back
to when the mayor of Clewiston asked me as the head of the ministerial association to look into unmet needs in our community, and how that led to the formation of our long term recovery workforce, C.R.E.W. (Community Rebuilding Ecumenical Workforce.) I learned that each church denomination has its strength and is a puzzle piece that fits together with other churches to provide the disaster relief ministry picture. Our United Methodist Church has been the backbone in helping to train and support case management to help the victims of the hurricane, with strong support from the Presbyterian Church. Those are the dynamics. The real blessings came from the ministry that these dynamics set the stage for. Volumes could be written of the testimonies from the families helped and the hundreds who have come to help out. Each work team has their own special stories to share. More stories and testimonies are occurring each week as another household is helped back on its feet. Lives have been changed. God has been glorified. The 24-7-365 ministry has taken its toll on the ministers in our area. Five of the spiritual shepherds from
our churches have left the area. A number of the leaders who were instrumental in helping us get started in recovery have stepped down from their positions to pursue other work. I thank God for a church family that has insisted that their spiritual leader take time away to recreate and re-create. I thank God for Pastor Thom Street of First United Methodist Church of Moore Haven for being a being in ministry together in this situation. I thank God for a good support group of churches and pastors who have kept us in their hearts and prayers and have put legs on their prayers. I praise God that He has raised up new leaders to pick up the baton to finish this race in full stride.

When we first started our recovery and the enormous task that seemed to be in front of us, I compared our task to eating an elephant. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Each little bit that each of us
gives makes a large difference in the life of those we touch. Each bite we take reduces the elephant sized situation. We have been chewing on this elephant for some time now, and have accomplished much, but there is
still a portion of the elephant left. Mostly now our needs are in finishing roof repairs. In the name of God and for the blessing of God’s people and ourselves, we invite you to join us by taking a bite out of what’s left and helping to make a difference. Our little becomes much when placed in our
Master’s hands, and each step we take brings us closer to God’s heart for His people. Thank God we are not alone. This is where we find strength for the journey. Our Lord has given us an incredible promise: "Where two
or three come together in my name, there am I with them." When God is in our midst, we can make it through even the most devastating storm.

Governor’s Humanitarian Award given to Catholic Charities!

Governor’s Humanitarian Award given toCatholic Charities for hurricane relief efforts

VENICE--Catholic Charities was the recipient of the prestigious 2007 Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference Humanitarian Award for their disaster response efforts throughout the storm seasons of 2004 and 2005 and their continued efforts in assisting disaster victims in 2006. The honor was presented at an award ceremony on May 16 during the conference at the Broward County Convention Center.

Volunteer Florida and the Volunteer Florida Foundation nominated Catholic Charities for the honor at the conference themed “Building on Past Successes…Preparing for Future Challenges.” The Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference focused on the unprecedented hurricane seasons of the past few years and the challenges they brought to the state’s ability to respond. The theme reflected on the wealth of experience that Florida has gained and the advancements that must be made.

“Catholic Charities was particularly cited for its emphasis on serving the most vulnerable among Florida’s citizens,” said Deacon Marcus Hepburn, emergency management specialist for the Florida Catholic Conference. Hepburn attended the award ceremony. “All seven Catholic Charities diocesan agencies in Florida were recognized for their work,” he said. Catholic Charities, Diocese of Venice was a leader in relief efforts and should be especially proud, Hepburn added.

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Venice typically serves a little over 40,000 clients annually but in 2004 almost 90,000 people received help from the organization through existing programs and seven hurricane recovery centers. Hurricane related services assisted over 46,000 individuals that year alone. In 2005, over 14,000 victims were helped with disaster relief.

“After Hurricane Wilma, we worked with the Collier County emergency management to develop a hurricane preparedness and response plan for the farm worker communities in that region, especially in Immokalee,” Routsis-Arroyo said. Catholic Charities also is participating in a project sponsored by the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund called Neighbors to the Rescue. This program puts neighbors in touch with neighbors to provide relief to individuals and families whose lives were disrupted by Hurricane Wilma. The Neighbors to the Rescue program connects volunteers, taps into community resources and creates virtual warehouses of available materials, goods, services, transportation and housing for those recovering from the storm.

The Lutherans continue to help CREW!

Members of St. Luke's Lutheran Church traveled from outside Seattle Washington on their own dime and their own time and spent a week sleeping on hard floors at Community Presbyterian Church. They repaired ceilings, installed sub flooring and laid new flooring, reset toilets, replaced a roof, installed dropped ceilings, installed windows, hot water heaters and doors, and painted. They were just part of a continuing effort of CREW's to help local residents recover from Hurricane Wilma and the new season of storms begin. God Bless them and our many other Lutheran (and other) volunteers. One of the elderly Cuban women that lives alone in a very remote area, was so gracious for the help they sent that she cooked for them and even asked if she could adopt one of the young men for companionship and live in help!

Our local Faith Lutheran Church, also had a fundraiser for CREW, they raised $177.00 cash and the following goods for donation, 12 boxes of pens, 6 boxes of paperclips, 2 staplers, 5 boxes of number 10 envelopes, 9 reams of copy paper, 5 boxes of pencils, 2 packs of notebook paper, 1 box of file folders, 5 number 6 3/4 envelopes, 10 boxes of tape and 2 packs of post its. This was very welcome, as finding funding for office supplies is almost impossible! God Bless Faith Lutheran!

Lutheran Disaster Response has consistently assisted us by sending volunteers from all over the country, which some of these Churches have also donated funds. If you look at past blog posts you will see what many of these churches have done for us.

Catholic Charites helps CREW rebuild homes

Catholic Charities helps rebuild homes, hope after hurricanes

KRISTIE NGUYEN, of the Florida Catholic staff

CLEWISTON — All that remained of Joaquin and Rachel Garcia’s home after Hurricane Wilma hit in October 2005 were the brick arches Joaquin Garcia had built around the porch.
For a year and a half, the Garcias lived in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer “that got smaller by the day,” Joaquin Garcia said. “As the months went on, it got smaller and smaller. Even the bed (shrank).”
The couple’s certificate of occupancy — granted just weeks ago — sits in a frame on the floor of their newly built home.
The Garcias were one of 122 families Catholic Charities helped after the storm through its Neighbors to the Rescue program. Sponsored by the Florida Disaster Relief Fund and the Volunteer Florida Foundation, the program puts neighbors in touch with neighbors to provide hurricane relief. It “connects volunteers, taps into community resources and creates virtual warehouses of available materials, goods, services, transportation and housing,” according to Catholic Charities. It’s an example of the work for which Florida’s seven Catholic Charities agencies received this year’s Humanitarian Award from the Governor’s Hurricane Conference.
Neighbors to the Rescue program coordinator Guadalupe Depaz said Catholic Charities relief efforts in Hendry County started off small and included providing assistance with a food pantry and items such as diapers, as well as financial assistance with utilities and rent.
Catholic Charities quickly began networking with other agencies through the Community Rebuilding Ecumenical Workforce program which is made up of a wide variety of faith-based recovery groups in Hendry County, allowing the members to aid their neighbors without the duplication of services.CREW volunteers were among those who helped rebuild the Garcias’ home. A group of workers from Indiana constructed the shell of the house in five days, Joaquin Garcia said.
“We had people all the way from the states of Washington, Maine, New York, Minnesota, Indiana and Maryland” who volunteered, he said. “They did a lot of good.”
In the 39 years Joaquin and Rachel Garcia have lived in Florida, they had never been hit by a hurricane.
“So finally, we had our part of it and we were right in the middle of it,” Joaquin Garcia said.
The Garcias sought refuge with their son, who lives on Florida’s east coast, during the storm.
FLORIDA CATHOLIC PHOTO BY HEATHER FELTON
After Hurricane Wilma destroyed Rachel and Joaquin Garcia’s home in October 2005, these brick arches and porch Joaquin Garcia built were the only things left standing. The couple’s new home was added to the rear of the porch.
“Then they called me and said my house is gone,” Joaquin Garcia said. “They said even the palm trees were down. I said, ‘No way.’”
He and his wife are still settling into their new home, shifting around furniture and retrieving household items from storage.Almost everything inside the house is a symbol of others’ generosity. A couple who volunteered in the hurricane aftermath installed the slate-colored flooring and the shelves in the Garcias’ walk-in closet. CREW gave the couple a glass-top dining table set, and a drawer in the living room came from a Naples hotel that donated furniture from its rooms.
“It’s been a long year and a half,” Joaquin Garcia said. “But we got here, thanks to God.”
Since its foundation, Depaz said, Hendry County’s Neighbors to the Rescue program has received donations of more than 200 volunteer hours; eight complete sets of furnishings from Port of the Islands Resort & Marina; linens from a Bed, Bath & Beyond in Palm Beach County; food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Harry Chapin Food Bank and area schools; $40,000 from Catholic Charities of Jacksonville; and items from the United Way of Lee County and Martha’s Helping Hands, as well as hundreds of donations from area residents.
As one of the agencies listed in the nomination of the Florida Catholic Conference for the Humanitarian Award, the people of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Venice Inc., feel honored to receive the recognition, said Peter Routsis-Arroyo, CEO.
Even now, more than a year and a half after Hurricane Wilma — the last hurricane of the 2004 and 2005 seasons to hit the Venice Diocese — Routsis-Arroyo said his staff is still involved in hurricane recovery efforts. More than 100 families are still living in trailers in the Clewiston area alone, he said.
“We continue to provide hurricane recovery to these three counties (Lee, Collier and Hendry) with funding from the Volunteer Florida Foundation,” he said.
The response efforts in the diocese began in August 2004 after Hurricane Charley slammed into the Port Charlotte Harbor, driving over the neighboring cities of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. The wrath didn’t stop there. The storm rampaged through the rest of Charlotte County, as well as Lee, DeSoto, Hardee and Hendry counties. Five of the diocese’s 10 counties felt the effects.
“That’s when we mobilized,” Routsis-Arroyo said, with the immediate activation of disaster recovery sites at parishes throughout the affected areas.
“This also helped to unify the entire Catholic family, from the bishop in the Catholic Center to St. Vincent de Paul, the Knights of Columbus and parishioners. We all came together to provide help and support.”
The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons also resulted in the creation of a statewide disaster coordinator position for the Florida Catholic Conference, held by Deacon Marcus Hepburn. It also produced a mutual aid agreement, under which the seven Catholic Charities and seven bishops in the state of Florida would come to one another’s aid in a natural disaster, Routsis-Arroyo said.
“We tested that with Hurricane Denis in early 2005 when Denis hit Pensacola,” he said. “Catholic Charities of Venice went up to Tallahassee-Pensacola and helped them with disaster recovery.”
After Hurricane Katrina hit, Catholic Charities USA asked Catholic Charities agencies throughout Florida to help the affected states. The seven Florida bishops decided to adopt Biloxi, Miss., where Catholic Charities provided hurricane relief for more than one month, Routsis-Arroyo said. Catholic Charities realized the need for a disaster plan specifically for farm workers after Hurricane Wilma hit the diocese, he added.
“We worked closely with Deacon Marcus and emergency management in Collier County to develop a plan specifically for Immokalee,” Routsis-Arroyo said.
This year, more than $100,000 worth of emergency food is being kept in a Catholic Charities storage area in Lakeland in case of a hurricane. The seven dioceses also share three mobile communication trailers, which “can power up a parish hall for a disaster recovery spot,” Routsis-Arroyos said.
The Diocese of Venice also set up a disaster amateur radio network, which has five base stations in Venice, Arcadia, Port Charlotte, Naples and Fort Myers.
“That was the beauty of this disaster,” Routsis-Arroyos said. “It forced us to come together.”

Florida homes get hurricane help

Florida homes get hurricane help
My Safe Florida Home program helps low-income residents prepare homes for hurricane season.
BY P.J. HELLER PLANTATION, Fla. June 2, 2007

My Safe Florida Home
Ross Dobben of New Creation Builders in Miramar, Fla., fits hurricane-rated shutters to windows on a home in Plantation as part of My Safe Florida Home program. Credit: P.J. Heller

Low-income residents in 12 Florida counties are getting a little extra help this hurricane season to protect their homes from storm damage.
Under the state-funded My Safe Florida Home program, a total of 4,000 homes will be getting hurricane-rated storm shutters, stronger exterior doors, sturdier garage doors and improvements to roofs, all free of charge.
"Everybody who lives in the state of Florida should know the importance of having shutters on their windows and just how much more secure you can be," said 22-year-old Vanessa Hernandez, who was watching as her mother's home in Broward County was being outfitted with the window coverings. "I feel more secure for them, too."

Residents in the counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, Escambia, Osceola, Glades, Hendry, Pinellas, Polk, Santa Rosa and St. Lucie are participating in the program, which is being coordinated by non-profit agencies in each county.

The mitigation effort was an attempt by the Florida Legislature to alleviate high homeowner insurance costs while allowing residents to strengthen their homes to better withstand hurricane damage, explained Suzanne Yack, a staff member with Volunteer Florida Foundation which oversees the program statewide.

Yack said that strengthening the homes with such things hurricane-rated window shutters and stronger exterior and garage doors would make them less vulnerable to wind damage during a hurricane.

"If we do all that we can prevent the wind from coming in," said Yack, who also serves as director of Neighbors to the Rescue and the Florida Faith-Based and Community-Based Advisory Council. "Once the wind comes in the roof tends to come off."

She said the program would also help maintain the limited amount of affordable housing available in many areas. The program does not include mobile or manufactured homes, apartments, condominiums or businesses.
"It's really critical that we save as much of our affordable housing inventory as we possibly can," Yack said. "We lost so much with Hurricane Wilma all across southern Florida. The housing has been absolutely destroyed and nobody is building affordable housing. So what we have left we've got to protect."

Dale Hirsch, executive director of Volunteer Broward, one of two non-profit agencies running the program in Broward County, said the program's $20 million total price tag for the 12 counties is a small amount to pay compared to the monetary damages a hurricane might cause.

"The building process is so expensive, the cost of fixing something is so expensive, it's cheaper to mitigate it," Hirsch said. A few weeks before the start of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, only about 100 homes had been strengthened with another 400 or so undergoing fortifications, according to the My Safe Florida Home Web site. Yack admitted that many of the homes enrolled so far in the program would not be ready for much of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began Friday. It ends Nov. 30.

"We have several hundred [homes] done but in terms of hitting the 4,000 number, there's just no way we can," she said. "We just really hope and pray that we can get enough up before anything hits."

With 12 counties to deal with and no idea where, when, or if, a hurricane will strike, Yack said it made little sense to concentrate efforts on a specific area.

"You can really pour all your coals into certain areas and then the storm hits somewhere else," she said. "You don't know where it's going to hit."
The majority of homes being strengthened are in the south Florida counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin, Yack said.
The program began earlier this year. The non-profit agencies responsible for the programs publicized the project, then took applications from residents. In Broward County, 150 homeowners are scheduled to have work done this year; other Broward residents were on a waiting list.
"We had lines out the door," said Sandy Lloyd, disaster specialist with Volunteer Broward. "There's way more than 150 we could really help. Way more."

The Liberia Economic and Social Development, also working in Broward County, was also at capacity, as was Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami.

Once a homeowner has been selected, the Volunteer Florida Foundation sends a certified inspector to the home to conduct a free inspection. The agencies in each county then work with the homeowner to schedule the work, arrange for necessary building permits and hire contractors. Two contractors have been hired in Broward County.

The local groups are asked to find matching funds as well as consider the use of volunteers to assist the contractors in order to leverage the project, Yack said. She said volunteers from faith-based groups, such as Mennonite Disaster Service which have construction experience, were especially welcome, as were people who can help find discounts on shutters, doors and roof bracing materials. "Right now, we have about 20 volunteers waiting for us to tell them what homes to go to," Lloyd said.
"It's not just about getting the funds," Hirsch added. "It's about layering the project with volunteers. Some actually have some construction background, although probably not a lot. But the ones that don't can still do a great deal of work that doesn't require hammering and nails."
Each project is limited to a maximum of $2,500, eliminating the need for competitive bidding, Yack said. Homeowners can pay extra to upgrade the industrial-style hurricane shutters or have additional work done that may not be covered under the program, she said.

Yack said that the non-profit agencies were quickly learning about construction. "They didn't come up through the trades," she said. "They didn't start as experts in shutters. They will end this project as experts in shutters, I promise you that. All of these people who are working on these projects are going to be incredibly valuable."

The low-income home strengthening project is just one part of the My Safe Florida Home program. Another much larger part, with a $250 million budget, involves matching grants of up to $5,000 to homeowners for upgrades. At the start of 2007, the My Safe Florida Home program had received more than 65,000 applications for wind inspections, officials said.
Yack said she expected the low-income program to continue for another year or two, with funding expected to double and the project expanded into other vulnerable counties.

"More money is going to be transferred into the low-income portion of the program because the need is so great," she said, adding, "And because we're doing a good job." Exactly how much of a difference the project will make is an unknown. One way of determining that might be to measure the damage after a storm to homes that were strengthened versus ones that were not, Yack said. "There's no guarantee," she said. "You never know which way the winds are going to come from. It's as strong as it gets for the amount of money."

Related Links:
• My Safe Florida Home program
• Volunteer Broward
• Volunteer Florida Foundation
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http://www.disasternews.net/news/article.php?articleid=3200