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Long-Term Hurricane Recovery Teams to Blanket Lee County
Mar 4, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact Only: Patricia Howell or Karen Hawes, Lee County Department of Human Services LONG-TERM HURRICANE RECOVERY TEAMS TO BLANKET LEE COUNTY FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 4, 2005) - Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne will never leave the minds of most Southwest Florida residents. More than 37,000 FEMA claims were made in Lee County. Some of our residents still have not recovered from the hurricanes. The Lee County Long Term Recovery Committee is coordinating with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) to assist in meeting some of the local needs. CRWRC is a program that was developed to assist in rebuilding communities affected by disasters. The CRWRC program has been in existence for 45 years. On Monday, March 7, 2005, CRWRC volunteers will arrive in Lee County. The team of 20 CRWRC volunteers will be joined by other local support agencies that have been working in the community. These teams will go door to door conducting needs assessments in some of our Lee County neighborhoods, Suncoast Estates, Fort Myers Beach and Cape Coral that have been identified as still not completely recovered. Over the next two weeks they also will be stationed at the following locations: The Shell Factory in North Fort Myers, The Lee County Library Branch in North Fort Myers, and the Home Depot in North Fort Myers. Fort Myers Beach and Cape Coral locations will be announced next week. All CRWRC team members will have identification and be wearing a green shirt. If you are not home or do not want to open the door, a flyer will be left with the number to call for assistance and information. Residents should call 239-533-7900, option #8 and leave the information requested. The completed needs assessments will be prioritized and those residents that were uninsured, underinsured, or had an insurance shortfall will be contacted by a recovery manager. Residents who received financial assistance for home repair from FEMA will be required to document home expenditures or provide the FEMA financial assistance toward making the necessary repairs. The Lee County Long Term Recovery is a collaborative partnership with the United Way, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Senior Solutions, and other community agencies. ABOUT THE LONG TERM RECOVERY COMMITTEE INITIATIVE The Long Term Recovery Committee (LTRC) was formed in collaboration between the World Church Organization, United Way, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Senior Solutions, Catholic Charities and the Lee County Department of Human Services. The purpose of the LTRC is to assist after the emergency response. Typically, the LTRC begins 60 days (or earlier depending on local collaboration) after the disaster and continues depending on the severity of the disasters for 6 months to two years. The LTRC identifies the unmet needs, coordinates local resources for the disaster, local agency collaboration to assist in meeting the needs and secures State and Federal resources. The LTRC provides oversight to the resources that are received, i.e., financial and volunteer services. The coordination and oversight will decrease the duplication of local efforts, provide efficient and effective response to survivors, and effectively utilize financial resources from the Federal, State and designated Relief Organizations. This coordination and oversight provides the local community the ability to maintain their local resources for non-related disaster assistance. There are two objectives identified by the LTRC: -Identify and assist in addressing the needs of the 2004 disaster survivors. -Prepare the Long Term Disaster Recovery Plan that will provide for the long term unmet needs of survivors for approval of the Board of County Commissioners. The Department of Human Services is the lead agency for LTRC. Most Federal and State funding will only be granted to local government agencies. However, most donated funds are restricted to non-profit agencies. In collaboration the DHS will apply for the government funding and the United Way will receive donated funds. Disaster related unmet needs continue to be reported to local agencies from the Ft. Myers Beach, Pine Island, N.Ft. Myers and Cape Coral. The LTRC has received reports from Ft. Myers Beach and North Ft. Myers of elderly being taken advantage of and they lack other resources to repair their home, mold infestation do to lack of financial resources or contractors to repair roofs and walls. There is still considerable need reported from Pine Island for structural repairs. FEMA reported in excess of 37,000 disaster claims for Lee County. Federal and State resources will be available to assist in the long-term recovery. The Federal Government has allocated $100,915,626 of Community Development Block grant funds to the State of Florida, 50% must be utilized for unmet housing needs, 25% for unmet small business loans and 25% for unmet public assistance needs. All funds must be utilized for documented unmet disaster related needs. DHS will be attending a meeting on March 7, 2005 for details on the criteria of the funds. Additionally, Federal HOME AGAIN funds have been made available for repair and replacement housing. DHS has submitted a HOME AGAIN application for unincorporated Lee County, requesting $300,000. The HOME Depot Corporation has contributed $500,000 in cash and $500,000 in materials the Florida Hurricane Fund (FHF). Also, the Bank of America has donated to the FHF $1,000,000 for hurricane assistance. In partnership with the United Way DHS has applied for $200,000 in Home Depot funds and $175,000 from the Bank of America. The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) organization staff has provided a great deal of assistance to the LTRC. On March 7, 2005 members of the CRWRC service will provide volunteers to do needs assessments. In some areas they will be going door-to-door providing information regarding assistance for those still with unmet needs. The priority will be given to those residents with unmet needs that were uninsured, underinsured or had an insurance shortfall and have no other resources. All residents that received any FEMA funds will be required to apply the FEMA reimbursement to the additional assistance they may receive. FEMA is providing documentation of those households that received assistance and will require verification of any claims. If households expended the funds making repairs, receipts will be required. Those that used FEMA funds for any use other than home repair will not receive assistance. Houses will be repaired to pre hurricane condition repairing only damage caused by the hurricanes. Volunteers will be deployed to Lee County from across the nation. It is expected that the volunteers will remain for two weeks completing as many assessments as possible. The volunteers will be provided accommodations in houses that were acquired by DHS for the supportive housing program to be rehabilitated and sold to low-income residents with disabilities. There are three houses located in Russell Park, Palmona Park and Cape Coral. The houses were purchased from HUD and were in need of rehabilitation. The CRWRC sent skilled volunteer labor to complete the rehabilitation on the housing. These homes are now complete and will be ready for sale once they are no longer needed for volunteer housing. Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army has provided furniture, appliances, linens, dishes and other items for the comfort of the volunteers. The CRWRC will train additional local volunteers in the community to assist with assessments once the original team departs. Once the needs assessments are completed the CRWRC will enter the initial assessments into a database and cross-referenced with FEMA records. Assistance will be needed from local volunteers to enter future data. The CRWRC will prioritize cases with the assistance from LTRC. Once the case is prioritized, needs will be identified and the scope of work will be provided by a licensed volunteer general contractor. A construction manager will coordinate the necessary supplies to the houses identified for repair. Volunteers will be deployed to provide skilled licensed labor. Case recovery workers will be assigned to assist in providing for unmet disaster needs. Coordination for case recovery managers and volunteer efforts will be provided by the DHS. |