The Madison County EMA director was in Bucyrus the last two days and spent the day with the leadership of the fledgling volunteer effort today. I found this note from her on my email when I got home:
Thanks for all your help - Servants Unite is truly doing God's work! The group you had here today was amazing!!
God bless, Krista
Linn Ash, the county volunteer coordinator raved about our volunteers as well. We need more! We'll have more work for you to do beginning Monday.
The EMA directors I've met up there have been great to deal with. Several from nearby counties are in Crawford county to assist Tim and his team. They are sharp, show genuine concern for the people they are charged with protecting, and are constantly brainstorming for ways to do their job better. Not the government functionaries we have seen at the federal level.
None-the-less, they have a finite responsibility in this. Recovery will take a long time. Even if a federal declaration comes as most expect we know from our experience that it will be months or years before the local governments and residents see financial relief from federal grants.
Tonight, most flooded homes in Bucyrus have been cleared of their furniture and belongings. A couple exceptions waiting on insurance appraisals are all that we could find this afternoon. Others will inevitably materialize, but the majority have been cleared by residents, friends, and neighbors since Wednesday when the water receded.
Left to do in many of these homes:
- Remove wet drywall, cabinets, carpet, and insulation. Most don't realize this is required to stop mold growth.
- Pressure wash and treat water exposed wood with bleach solution.
- Shore up sagging floors and minor structural problems. Basement wall problems have condemned over 60 homes and state inspectors may have condemned more today, but I've witnessed that the most wavy floor won't get it that designation.
- Replace drywall, floor coverings, cabinets, paint, and wallpaper.
- Replace appliances. Furnaces, water heaters, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, washers, and dryers.
- Replace furniture.
- Replace personal belongings that are replaceable.
We are getting requests for appliances already as people who are displaced move into new places. Specifically today I have a request for a stove. I need people to help arrange Good used appliance donations and transport them to Bucyrus as well as a dropoff location. I can also accept gift cards to Lowes or Home Depot. I'll turn those over to the new Crawford County Flood Recovery Group for equitable disbursement to needy residents. These are a great way to donate to people in disasters. You can put a message with the card and be assured it is spent on things required to rebuild a household.
Servants Unite is also low on cash to perform relief operations. We need to purchase tools for volunteers to use for recovery, cover some transportation costs, and directly support needy storm victims in their recovery.
To donate to Servants Unite or send money, gift cards, or household appliances for storm victims, refer to the "Supplies Needed" link on the web site at www.servantsunite.org Please specify the intent of your donation to go to storm victims directly, volunteer operations, or as needed.
Volunteer operations will resume Monday. The Crawford County organizers are taking tomorrow to spec new jobs for the volunteers we have coming through next week. If you'd like to join them, let me know!
Here are a few pictures from today's work.
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