Red Cross, community partner for flood relief

Mariah Romero of Imperial County, CA stacks a case of canned water next to some Red Cross cleaning kits while Debbie Hoffman of Hopewell, VA waits for more supples. The two Red Cross volunteers were helping to sort supplies being brought in to the Multi-Agency Resource Center set up at the Reynolds Center in Pine Bluff.
Mariah Romero of Imperial County, CA stacks a case of canned water next to some Red Cross cleaning kits while Debbie Hoffman of Hopewell, VA waits for more supples. The two Red Cross volunteers were helping to sort supplies being brought in to the Multi-Agency Resource Center set up at the Reynolds Center in Pine Bluff.

PINE BLUFF -- Residents along the Arkansas River affected by recent flooding accessed information and assistance from a variety of disaster-relief organizations through a "one-stop shop" set up by the American Red Cross and other community partners on Thursday.

Representatives from state government, nonprofits and faith-based disaster-relief organizations gathered at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Center in Pine Bluff, setting up what they called a Multi-Agency Resource Center.

To be eligible for assistance, individuals and families were required to bring identification showing verification of address.

Lori Arnold, executive director of the Greater Arkansas Chapter of the Red Cross, said the Multi-Agency Resource Center concept has proven to be an efficient way to bring together numerous disaster-relief resources from charitable organizations, faith-based organizations and state agencies involved in helping people try to recover from disaster.

"This is a one-stop shop," Arnold said. "It's an opportunity for people to come to one place, visit every single table and find out what kind of resources they may not have even known they were eligible for."

Arnold said often people affected by disasters don't realize what agencies and organizations are available to offer assistance, and that with Multi-Agency Resource Centers, they can guide people through the process.

"We bring as many organizations as we can into one place so that when people come in looking for help they can get as many resources as possible," she said. "So, we try to make this as wide-ranging as possible. Anyone who deals with disaster relief, we try to get them all here at this one time.

"It takes a village," Arnold added. "There's no way that one organization can meet all the needs for everybody, so when we work together like this, we can meet all those needs in one place at one time."

Red Cross volunteer Robert Jolley of Boston, Mass., a mental health worker, said his role is to help people in the beginning stages of coping with disaster and to help connect them with local, long-term mental health resources.

"We provide psychological first aid, so to speak, to help people express some of their feelings," Jolley said.

Cindy Fuller, public information officer for the Arkansas-Oklahoma division of the Salvation Army, said the Multi-Agency Resource Center has not only served as a clearinghouse for disaster-relief services, but also as a community meeting place for neighbors who were displaced by the flood to catch up with one another.

"They've been so happy to see each other and check on each other and say thank you for helping," Fuller said. "The resilience and the attitude of the people we see coming to our table is just wonderful."

Jan Thames of Little Rock, a member of the Arkansas Episcopal Disaster Relief Team, a faith-based organization, said her organization tries to help meet peoples' spiritual needs, but also provides tangible relief as well.

"We listen to people, to what they have been through, to provide emotional support and pastoral care," Thames said. "We also provide a gift of a Walmart gift card to help with their recovery as well."

Thames said that with the gift card, which varies in amount according to need and family size, people can address some of their immediate needs such as gasoline, food, clothing or building materials.

"We work to make longer term assistance available through our [Volunteers Active in Disaster] partners as well," she said.

Cindy Koonce, who lives on Riverside Drive in Pine Bluff, said the interior of her home had about three feet of water for more than two weeks, buckling floors, ruining sheetrock and warping doors.

"We had to take the front door completely off to get inside," Koonce said.

She said in the 22 years she has lived there, floodwaters have never gotten inside the home, which she said will likely never be inhabitable again.

"We'll either have to rebuild or move," Koonce said. "Depending on what the insurance company says, we'll decide that when the time comes. I'd like to stay there, but we'll see."

Currently, Koonce and her husband are living with their son, daughter-in-law and their children.

"They were actually staying with us when the flood hit," she said. "They put their house up for sale and it sold in four days, so they were like, 'Oh no, we've got to find a place to live.' Then this happened, so they rented a house and we're staying with them."

Koonce said the different organizations set up at the Reynolds Center offered a wealth of good information, providing tips on dealing with insurance, how to recognize contractor scams, and what paperwork would be needed as the recovery process continues.

"I got so much good information and I'm so appreciative of everything the people were doing," she said. "From the donations of food and water, we got our immunizations there, and the Realtors were there. They gave us forms to fill out for assistance for housing, who to contact if we have problems with a contractor, just a lot of good, practical information."

Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington said about 50 families in the city were directly affected by flooding, those living along Riverside Drive. But further out in the area, she said an estimated 600 families throughout Jefferson County were hit by flooding to one degree or another.

"I think that's the largest impact that we've had, that have been impacted by flooding, as far back as anyone can remember," Washington said. "I've talked to a lot of people who have gone through numerous floods and they've never seen anything as severe as this."

Washington said her office is encouraging people to keep good records of their flood losses to be able to turn those in to the appropriate organization.

Red Cross has also established a toll-free number for Arkansas residents impacted by recent flooding to request information about Red Cross recovery resources. The number, (888) 244-4023, is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to a press release from the Red Cross.

Callers will be asked to provide their name, address and contact information to receive a follow-up call from a Red Cross volunteer. The volunteer will aid the caller in the development of an individualized recovery plan and inform them of available resources from partner agencies.

The Multi-Agency Resource Center continues through today until 8 p.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Center, 211 W. 3rd Ave., in Pine Bluff. Next week, on June 24 and June 25, a Multi-Agency Resource Center will be set up in Conway at the Wesley United Methodist Church from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. The Wesley United Methodist Church is located at 2310 E. Oak St., Conway.

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David Quinn of Magnolia, N.C., hands Red Cross cleaning kits down Thursday to Mariah Romero (center) of Imperial County, Calif., and Debbie Hoffman of Hopewell, Va., at the Multi-Agency Resource Center in Pine Bluff. The three Red Cross volunteers were helping sort supplies intended for flood victims in the city.

State Desk on 06/21/2019

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