Storm Response Continues Despite Funding Shortage
CRWRC News | August 25, 2009
While Hurricane Bill sent sea waves crashing past the Northeastern seaboard over the weekend, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) disaster response director Bill Adams’s mind was on a different storm track— how he’d find funding to continue work in the areas of Texas that were ravaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
“A year ago, we estimated that recovery costs on the Bolivar Peninsula and the Texas coastal plain would near $1 million,” Adams said over the weekend. “My visit to the Galveston area last week confirmed that long-term reconstruction needs there are huge.” Adams added that CRWRC will continue to look for ways to fund the work in Texas despite the downturned economy.
Since September 13, 2008, CRWRC has raised about $250,000 of the $1 million it estimates it needs to respond to recent hurricanes. These funds enabled CRWRC to get local emergency workers back into their homes, and send 6,400 volunteers to the Bridge City area where they repaired 82 buildings. Today, CRWRC is continuing its home reconstruction response.
“We will be faithful to the survivors of Hurricane Ike, and to those on the Coast who also survived Hurricane Rita in 2005,” Adams says.
Unfortunately, many faith groups are pulling their disaster response teams out of Texas due to lack of resources. Even before the downturn in the economy, faith-based disaster organizations were struggling to meet the needs of communities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricanes Rita and Ike in the following years. Now, with charitable giving dwindling, agencies are being forced to make decisions about where they will respond.
Adams says that while the agency has been stretched by the number and magnitude of natural disasters in the U.S. in the last four years, it will continue to provide service to areas of need. This is, in part, because CRWRC has a roster of over 2,000 trained people who volunteer their time to serve at disaster sites. It is also because CRWRC serves a population of people - those in poverty, without insurance, the elderly, and the disabled - who have few other options for assistance.
“Our job is to be there for them.” Adams says, “It’s not only what we do. It’s part of who we are as believers in Jesus Christ.”
CRWRC is accepting donations to support their work in Texas and other hurricane-ravaged areas.
To support the work in Texas, choose "Hurricanes US 2008" from the pull-down menu. Otherwise choose "North America Disaster - Wherever the need is greatest."