DISASTER RECOVERY
Our Role With Hurricane Relief Efforts in Charlotte County The 2004 hurricane season put a real damper on our church’s programming, as well as our lives. However, our church aggressively responded to our community’s immediate needs the first ten weeks, every day, including weekends. Thousands of peoples’ needs were met. Five days after Hurricane Charley,  a small band of volunteers began knocking of doors throughout Charlotte County, assessing residents' needs. During this time, PCUMC became known throughout Charlotte County for organizing and providing volunteer work teams. Our organization and matching of jobs and volunteers put our church in the forefront of leading our community to recovery. Volunteer work groups from all over Florida, including from many states, came to our aid. Upon reporting at our church, the work teams received forms with the name, address, phone number, map coordinates with directions, and a brief description of the work to be done at a particular residence. They tarped roofs, cleaned yard debris, chain-sawed trees, removed damaged structures, bulldozed trees, etc. There were periods when the work demand far exceeded the pool of volunteers, but we persevered. PCUMC worked in concert with many organizations, including but not limited to: Interfaith/Interagency Network of Charlotte County (IINCC), the Ft. Myers District Disaster Relief Coordinators (Jim & Sharon Luther), the FLUMC Storm Recovery Center, Charlotte County Volunteer Resource Center, Charlotte County Emergency Operations Center, Florida Interfaith Networking in Disaster (FIND), Charlotte County Collective (C3), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Lutheran Disaster Sevices (LDS), DeSoto County Unmet Needs Committee, Church World Service (CWS), Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), and many others. Typically, it is the faith-based organizations that focus on and respond to a community’s unmet needs, particularly those groups more vulnerable to disasters:  i.e., the economically disadvantaged, the disabled, and the elderly.  Faith-based groups and non-profits remain in town long after the state and federal agencies disappear.  Volunteers do case work, provide direct services, and clean up/repair/rebuild homes.  Estimates are it takes three to five years, at least, to fully recover from a hurricane (many may never fully recover).  That means many people may wait years before their homes are rebuilt, or years before they will find permanent housing.  Remember, people were still in need of housing and financial assistance ten years after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.                 PCUMC:        a.  participated in Charlotte County meetings and trainings related to long-term recovery;        b.     provided a part-time Disaster Recovery Coordinator staff member,  (salary paid from disaster-related grants);        c.     provided office space for a volunteer counselor;        d.     provided office space for a  FLUMC provided Case Manager;        e.     collected work requests from individuals and other agencies;        f.      coordinated work groups to help individuals clean up and/or rebuild;        g.  provided office space for the Interfaith/Interagency Network of Charlotte County.
What is “IINCC” (pronounced “ink”) (Interfaith/Interagency Network of Charlotte County, Inc.)         There are dozens of human services-related agencies in Charlotte County; here long before Charley and his harem visited SW Florida. They include churches, faith-based organizations, local government agencies, business, and individuals.  They assist residents with shelter, food, money, jobs, transportation and health care.  They all want to help rebuild our community. But, how do you coordinate the efforts of so many people and agencies without duplicating efforts and wasting precious funding?  Who will be the focal point for collecting individuals’ unmet needs throughout Charlotte County? Where will donations and grants for disaster victims be sent to and who will administer and distribute these funds? IINCC was a culmination of many meetings to develop a faith-based recovery organization that would “take the initiative in organizing and functioning as the nucleus of a non-operational community recovery committee”.  Incorporated November 10, 2004, IINCC’s initial Board of Directors began the arduous process of centralizing the collection of needs assessments, assigning case workers, receiving and tasking volunteer work groups, writing grants, and distributing funds.  Initially, three paid staff members formrf the initial working hub:  the Executive Director, a Case Manager (hired by FLUMC), and a Volunteer Coordinator (hired by Lutheran Disaster Services).