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."
