Hope for Haywood County forms to provide long-term disaster recovery services

Disaster assistance won’t end when FEMA leaves town thanks to local citizens who have joined together to form Hope for Haywood County Disaster Recovery Services. The forming of this long-term recovery organization will help the community to determine the unmet needs of recent flood victims.

As part of this effort, Hope for Haywood County has invited the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) to canvas our neighborhoods and assess the situation. The CRWRC Needs Assessment Teams identify a community’s unmet needs and estimates the total cost to recover.

The team members, who will be wearing green shirts, will go door to door interviewing flood victims. They will be covering areas in Brownsville, Stanton and Haywood County within the next few days.

It’s important that the community realize these ‘green shirts’ will not be asking for money or providing any immediate assistance but simply taking a survey. Please be courteous and allow them to interview you. Also realize that unleashed dogs present a special problem for team members and make sure your pets are secured. The teams will be in our community from June 28 to July 2.

The CRWRC Teams will prioritize their findings and present this information to the local recovery group. It will be the job of Hope for Haywood County to use the statistics to begin the process of helping to meet these needs.

Anyone interested in volunteering to be a part of the Hope for Haywood County organization should contact Jennifer Wood at 731-422-1816.