Photos by Reuters/Carlos Barria
USA (MNN) ― Texas weathered Hurricane Ike, and now people are taking stock of the damages and rebuilding.
Initial damage assessments from the recent storm estimates repairs in the tens of billions.
The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee is looking to raise $1 million to assist low income families trying to recover from this latest tragedy.
CRWRC's Bill Adams, Director of Disaster Response Services, says their teams already know what they need to do. "Our role in this early stage is to help with the cleanup and to support our partners wherever we can."
They'll arrive on-site today. Disaster work teams that were scheduled to arrive in Port Arthur and Lake Charles, Texas, this week to continue reconstruction from Hurricane Rita will expand their work to cover reparations from Hurricane Ike.
Adams says parts of Texas that were devastated by Rita three years ago are being slammed again. Many families are reliving a nightmare. However, he believes that "the Lord allows these things to happen, but He does it so that His people can respond, so the prayers of God's people would be first and then financial contributions to support the ongoing work."
As community leaders begin to understand the full impact of Ike, additional volunteers will be sent to help plan the recovery and conduct "needs assessments."
A "needs assessment" is an interview process through which volunteers help the local long-term recovery organizations identify individuals in their community with the greatest need.
Though stretched thin by the number and magnitude of natural disasters in the last three years, Adams says, "Our people come in to bring physical relief; they come in to either help clean up a home, help repair or rebuild a house, but basically, what they're doing when they go in is ministering to the families. It's very common for our people to sit down and to pray with the homeowner. We see more restoration of people's lives come from that."
