AHAH Monthly Program Update - Florida (March 2021)

FLORIDA HURRICANE RELIEF UPDATE MARCH 2021

TOTAL IMPACT TO DATE

846

LIVES IMPACTED

Current Activities

7,384

VOLUNTEER DAYS

Our all-staff team in Jackson County continue to make great progress and have now completed a total of 16 high-quality, interior home repairs! With only 5 more homes in our work queue, we’re on track to reach our goal of completing 21 homes by April 2021 when we will be closing down the program. The team will now simultaneously be focusing on finishing these last few homes whilst organizing and packing up our base of operations.

343

JOBS COMPLETED

Community Stories

596

VOLUNTEERS

Following on from our partnership spotlight on United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) last month, we wanted to share more of Ms. Teresa’s story; the beneficiary of the home that we helped to rebuild with UMCOR and Alabama West-Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church (AWFUMC).

Ms. Teresa has always lived in the Jackson County area, most recently in Blountstown. Her mobile home of six years was severely damaged during Hurricane Michael and became unsafe to live in, so she moved into a camper where she lived for over two years and continued to work at her job at the Marianna McDonald’s, 25 miles from her home. She had hopes of moving to Marianna, but moving is very costly so wasn’t possible. Until a family that was moving out of Marianna and knew of Teresa’s story decided to donate their land to her, so she could move into town.

After obtaining the land and becoming connected with AWFUMC and the North Florida Inland Long Term Recovery Group (NFILTRG), the plans were set in motion, and AWFUMC committed to building a home and donating it to Ms. Teresa’s family. Teresa will move in soon with her 23-year-old and 15-year-old children. We are grateful to have been involved in this amazing project and to see Teresa take giant steps in her recovery from Hurricane Michael.

Photos: (top) An AHAH staff member working on the interior of Ms. Teresa’s new home, (left) Ms. Teresa’s mobile home damaged by Hurricane Michael, and her new home.

Learn about our programs at

allhandsandhearts.org

Disaster Profile On October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael slammed into Mexico Beach, Florida as a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained wind speeds of 160 mph. With record-breaking wind speeds, Michael was both the strongest storm to make landfall in the continental US (since Hurricane Andrew in 1992) and to ever hit the Florida Panhandle.

Tracking across the Southeastern United States, winds plunged 1.4 million residents into complete darkness in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas. Communities across the region were devastated, with full towns in the Panhandle demolished beyond recognition.

Our Work Thanks to the support of our partners, donors, local community and volunteers from all over the world, we have been cultivating a powerful impact in Florida since October 2018. Our first program was in Bay County, where we began with response efforts (chainsawing, debris removal and residential flood cleanup) before officially transitioning to a recovery program from June 2019 to January 2020 when we carried out muck and guts, mold sanitation and rebuild work on affected homes. In October 2020, we moved this work into Jackson County, where we are continuing to serve the long-term repair needs through mid-April 2021.

About All Hands and Hearts We effectively and efficiently address the immediate and long-term needs of communities impacted by natural disasters. We communicate directly with local leaders and community members and then deploy our unique model of engaging volunteers to enable direct impact, helping to build safer, more resilient schools, homes and infrastructure.

We have earned a 4-star rating by Charity Navigator for the seventh year in a row. This year only seven percent of rated non-profits received this distinction for financial and operational efficiency.

Our Partners

info@allhandsandhearts.org