May 18, 2010

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – It's been two years since a flood forced Donald McSpadden and his wife to move away from their damaged house, but today, surrounded by family and volunteers, the McSpaddens saw the rebirth of their home.

The McSpaddens were joined by family, well-wishers and some 40 volunteers, as humanitarian agency Church World Service and its national and local partners celebrated the end of the Neighborhood: Cedar Rapids project – a six-week effort that brought together volunteers from across the U.S. and Canada to help 14 families return home.

"He's been so excited he can't sleep at night," McSpadden's daughter Sandy Dighton said. Using a wheelchair and coping with a disability, McSpadden's eyes welled with tears as he saw newly finished floors, fixtures and fresh paint on drywall. He thanked each volunteer he saw in a strained voice.

Needs still abound in Cedar Rapids, despite the fact that the Cedar River's devastating flood happened in 2008. In the McSpadden's neighborhood of Time Check, nearby homes are being demolished as government officials readjusted the floodplain based on the disaster two years ago.

The couple's home sits just beyond the new floodplain line. Many of their neighbors have already seen their homes bought out and demolished in the floodplain readjustment.

"The people in the neighborhood, they were angry for a long time," said Melzor Hill, rebuild project site coordinator on the McSpadden home. "It's still hard for them."

Even during the Neighborhood: Cedar Rapids ceremony, the sounds of demolition elsewhere in the neighborhood could be heard over a polka band playing for the event. Yet the focus of the volunteers, CWS's recovery organization partners and the 14 families at this ceremony was solely on the effort of returning as many families home as possible.

"We can't help where they say the line is drawn for the floodplain," says Bonnie Vollmering, Church World Service Associate Director for Domestic Emergency Response. "All we can do is help as many people as we can return to the homes allowed to stand."

The spirit of helping people is what drew retired federal executive Shirley Mehan, of Rock Spring United Church of Christ in Arlington, Va., to come to Cedar Rapids as a rebuild volunteer. "The spirit moves you to make a contribution," Mehan said, taking a break to wipe sweat from her brow as she sanded drywall. "We're taking all the time, we should be doing some giving."

Following disasters in the U.S., the work of long term recovery organizations is just that: it's not about quick fixes and it's targeted to those who are uninsured, under-insured, are otherwise not sufficiently assisted by the system to return to their homes – or may be left two years out, as with many in Cedar Rapids, either still waiting and living elsewhere, with key repairs still lacking, or seeing their home now being leveled.

At Monday's rebuild ceremony, keynoter Rev. Kevin Massey, Director of Lutheran Disaster Response in the U.S., said, "The long term recovery team is the most challenging team to be a part of. It certainly takes the longest of all the disaster responders to do its work."

The Neighborhood: Cedar Rapids project builds on the first Church World Service ecumenical rebuilding project, Neighborhood: New Orleans.

That effort returned 12 Hurricane Katrina-displaced families to their homes in just four weeks with more than 500 volunteers.

CWS faith-based partners brought more than 400 volunteers to Cedar Rapids,some of whom worked on Bill Parrott's home. Also disabled, Parrott has lived upstairs in his home while copin g with flood damage and repairs downstairs.

He spent most of the six-week project working side by side with volunteers.

"I wouldn't feel right to just stand around and watch them," Parrott said.

"I can say I've met the good people of the world."

CWS partners in Iowa Block by Block and the Linn Area Long-Term Recovery Coalition identified the homes to be repaired. CWS collaborated with the Presbytery of East Iowa and Lutheran Services in Iowa to coordinate the project's volunteers.

National partners in the effort included American Baptist Churches, U.S.A., Brethren Disaster Ministries, Catholic Charities, U.S.A., Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, Disaster Response, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Week of Compassion.

To find out more about the U.S. and international disaster recovery work of Church World Service, visit: http://www.churchworldservice.org/.

Church World Service