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SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 2012
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THE TIMES LEADER
www.timesleader.com
Group gives hope to victims along with help Volunteers give up their time at their own expense to travel to disaster areas. By BILL O’BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com
PLAINS TWP. – When Barbara Hartman brought her group to the area to help out, they were greeted with despair. In mid-April, Hartman, coordinator for Carpenter’s Calling Mission Team of the Eastern
Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, brought 50 volunteers to help flood victims in Shickshinny, West Pittston and Plains Township. “There was no hope in their hearts,” Hartman said of the flood victims she met. “They thought they were forgotten. It was very humbling to hear that.” Hartman, 65, said she and the other volunteers told everyone they were in their town to help and to give them some hope. “We wanted them to know that
there are people out there that care and who are willing to help,” she said. Hartman’s group and some 30 others have come to the region to help flood victims recover from last September’s devastating storms. They work in cooperation with the Disaster Recovery Coalition of Luzerne County. The faith-based groups provide volunteers to help rebuild homes and lives, to dust off the mud of nine months ago, to return normalcy to the lives of flood victims who have struggled to put their
lives back together. Hartman and her husband, Ed, 67, started doing this work in 1996. Volunteers give up their time at their own expense to travel to disaster areas to help victims. “This is not demanded of us,” she said. “We go because we want to. We feel as though we are serving God.” Hartman said they have traveled all over the country to help, but this time they decided to stay in their home state. “We just said, ‘Ya know what,
we’re staying home this time,’ ” she said. Hartman said the people she met “couldn’t have been nicer,” and all were very gracious and appreciative. “We all came back with such a good feeling,” Hartman said. “We could see the people there go from non-hopeful to hopeful. And that makes us all feel good about what we’re doing.” Michelle Davis, the local Federal Emergency Management Agency representative, works as the voluntary agency liaison for
the DRC. She helped match the volunteers’ skill sets to the work needed at each property. “They have done phenomenal work,” Davis said. The work has ranged from cleaning up the yard of an 87 yearold man in Shickshinny to gutting interiors, removing mold and installing new drywall. The disaster declaration ends in March, but Davis said victims can stay in their FEMA trailers longer if they show progress in finding permanent housing.
CLARK VAN ORDEN/THE TIMES LEADER
Bob McGrew cuts a piece of sheet rock inside a flood-damaged home on Courtright Street in Plains Township. In the background are Bethany Couchman, Susan Kirk and Duane Kirk.
Bethany Couchman, Duane Kirk and Susan Kirk of Modesto, Calif., fit a piece of sheet rock onto the ceiling of a flood damaged home in Plains Township.
blessings they leave,” Sivers provided is huge. said. The Modesto group, like most of the others, has been to disasThe Modesto 14 ter sites like New Orleans and Modesto is about an hour in- Nashville. They give a week of land from San Francisco. The their lives each year to help digroup is affiliated with the Trin- saster victims become whole ity Presbyterian Church there again. “We do this because it’s our and some members are retired, others are teachers, managers, way of sharing God’s love,” said dairy farmers and a newspaper Liz Benson. “We’re helping peophotographer. One is a family ple who need help. It’s in our hearts; it’s our calling.” physician. Benson’s husband, Ted, said But they all share a common bond – a deep desire to help many of the volunteers bring their own tools and they often their fellow man. Don and Cathy Jepson, Ted raise money to help pay for maand Liz Benson, Bob and Katie terials. “A lot of us take vacation time McGrew, Mary Couchman and her daughter, Bethany, Duane to come here,” he said. “We do it and Susan Kirk, Tony and Chris because we want to and feel we Ott, Frank Quaresma and Diane need to.” Gallagher are, as Don Jepson put it, just a small piece of a much The DRC program The local organizers said they larger puzzle. But to Donna Stevens on realized early on the need for a Courtright Street in Plains coordinated effort to meet the Township, the piece they have needs of a recovering region af-
‘Vacation’ in Shickshinny Jamie Rowen graduated from the University of North CarolinaGreensboro in May. From March 4-11, Rowen and seven others from the school were in Shickshinny, West Pittston and Tunkhannock helping flood victims. The students chose to do construction work and cleanup over their spring break, rather than party in tropical climates like many of their contemporaries. “A lot of people couldn’t believe that we would come to Shickshinny rather than go to Cancun,” Rowen, 22, said. “Everyone was surprised that we would give up our spring break to do this work.” Rowen said the group was treated to some unexpected northern hospitality. A resident of Lancaster, Rowen said the group enjoyed their time here helping flood victims in the early stages of rebuilding their homes and lives. “We were happy to work with individuals,” he said. “We got to know them and really got close to them. It’s an interesting dynamic when in the hustle and bustle of normal life, you per-
form a service and get to know people who need help and they are so grateful.” People who were helped by the Modesto group, like Donna and Kenny Stevens of Courtright Street in Plains Township, can’t say enough about the volunteers. Four feet of water on the first floor of the Stevens’ doubleblock caused about $110,000 in structural damage. That doesn’t include the loss of personal items and furniture. “We’ve been working since September to clean out the property and gut it to the outside walls,” Donna Stevens said. “We didn’t have flood insurance and FEMA helped some, but not enough to complete the job. We had to borrow the rest.” Donna, an unemployed photographer, and Kenny, a production assistant in a factory, have lived in the home for 20 years. Their daughter, Lindsey, will occupy the other side. The Modesto group completed drywalling and spackling the first floor, she said. Stevens said if the volunteers didn’t help, it would be at least another year before she could return to the property. “I do believe it is a calling for these people,” she said. “If they didn’t come here, we would be plugging along doing it ourselves a little at a time. Now I can actually see the house coming back together again and we will be back much sooner than we ever thought.” Stevens said the Modesto group is doing “God’s work.” “I’m having trouble finding the words to adequately say how we feel,” she said. Thyren, the volunteer coordinator, said it’s been a wonderful experience for all involved. “We are amazed how many people are traveling long distances, sleeping in less-than-4star accommodations, just to help the flood victims of Northeastern Pennsylvania,” she said. “They have shoveled mud, rebuilt homes, listened, and cried with us. “Perhaps most importantly, they have brought hope to people who were in despair.”
recreation facilities, athletic organizations, the F.M. Kirby Center, The Lands at Hillside Farms and infrastructure and construction in several municipalities. The county’s flexible spending of borrowed funds was made possible by adding a clause in most bond documents that gives officials freedom to add or subtract capital projects as they see fit.
The county’s strapped general fund must pay $22.5 million toward debt this year, or 18 percent of the $122.6 million budget. Repayments are slated to increase to $25 million next year and remain around that amount through 2026, dropping to $22 million in 2027, officials have said. County officials want to reduce the amount owed by refi-
nancing the debt at a lower interest rate, but that option can’t be tapped until the county obtains a bond credit rating. County Interim Budget/Finance Chief Vic Mazziotti said he doesn’t expect the county to secure a rating for several years because rating companies want multiple years of evidence of stable finances and preferably a surplus.
ter Tropical Storm Lee. The Disaster Relief Coalition of Luzerne County was organized to meet those needs by bringing together regional service providers, government agencies and faith-based groups to assist the restoration of the flood-damaged communities. The coalition works with local governmental leaders to identify and assess the needs in each town and to determine how to help specific homeowners. Case managers and project coordinators meet with homeowners to determine what needs to be done and match those needs to the services available. That’s where the volunteer groups come in. Usually the homeowner provides materials, but sometimes items are donated. The volunteers work side-by-side with the homeowners to restore the homes. The elderly, economically disadvantaged and homes severely damaged are given priority.
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42.7 feet. Reilly’s West Pittston home at 12 Montgomery Ave. was severely damaged – more than $100,000 worth, and he had no flood insurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency helped some – but not enough. Reilly had been trying to do most of the repair work himself so he and his wife, daughter, sons and grandchildren – seven in all – can go home. They have been living in two FEMA trailers for nine months. “Too bad there aren’t more people like them around,” he said of the volunteers. Help from afar There are more of them -- lots more. Doug Sivers, northeast coordinator for the United Methodist Flood Recovery Program, Garry Van Scoy, case manager for the Disaster Recovery Coalition, and Jan Thyren, volunteer coordinator for the coalition, said 31 volunteer groups have come to the area to help or will be here soon. Reilly said one of them will be at his house to help finish the job. Sivers, Van Scoy and Thyren said about 15 houses have had work completed with the help of the faith-based volunteers and 10 more are in various states of repair. There are 40 more on the waiting list. Van Scoy said the coalition is working throughout Luzerne County, including in Hunlock Creek, Shickshinny, Plains Township, Jenkins Township, West Pittston, Duryea, Pittston, Exeter, Nanticoke, Wapwallopen and Mocanaqua. “I’d fit right in with these people,” Reilly said of the Modesto group. “But I guess it’s my turn to receive.” Reilly hopes to have his family back in their home by the fall. “I can’t say enough to thank them. Actually, I thank God for
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expenses. Debt also was restructured in 2006 to obtain $12.3 million in cash in exchange for future higher debt repayments. Past borrowed funds also were spent on the countywide reassessment and related property
Volunteers from Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Modesto Calif., outside of one of the homes they are helping to rebuild in West Pittston recently. First row, from left: Susan Kirk, Liz Benson, Kathy Jepson, Bob McGraw. Second row, from left: Frank Quaresma, Ted Benson, Diane Gallagher, Mary Couchman, Chris Ott, Katie McGrew. Third row, from left: Bethany Couchman, Duane Kirk, homeowner Tom Reilly, Tom Jepson, Tony Ott.
them,” Reilly said. Towns’ scars remain West Pittston and the other affected towns still wear the scars of September’s raging flood waters. Many homes and businesses are far from being restored. Across the street from Reilly’s house is another with a “Keep Out” sign posted and no visible sign of restoration. The road back has been long, hard and costly. “The people who come out with these faith-based groups truly feel that God is calling them to help,” Sivers said. “There is an underlying understanding of why they do what they do.” Sivers said the volunteers give up a week of their lives at substantial personal cost to help people in need. “And they tell me that they come away from their experience more blessed than the record and mapping technology improvements, the purchase of watershed land, flood control projects and an early retirement incentive. Around $1.3 million was spent designing a new prison that never materialized. An inmate population decrease and challenges borrowing up to $100 million to fund a new prison prompted officials to
scrap the idea. Community projects funded Millions of borrowed funds also were allocated for community projects outside the realm of county government by past commissioners who argued the investments would improve quality of life and spur new development. This includes allocations for