Hands On Disaster Response is now All Hands Volunteers

HODR volunteers have been working hard in Newton County, Missouri helping survivors of the May 10th tornado. The storm leveled 200+ homes, dozens of farm structures, and thousands of trees in the area. We have been helping clear trees from and repair barbed-wire fencing so farmers can secure their livestock and way of life. Volunteers have also been assisting with debris cleanup and home demolition.

View pictures of the work so far here

We made the local television news click here to read/watch

This week we will begin repairing the roof of a home that suffered a partial collapse as a result of the tornado. The storm also blew out windows and damaged the home’s siding. The homeowner’s insurance company “totaled” the house and wrote him a check for $15,000. He received quotes to repair the roof ranging from $4-12,000. He has purchased the materials for under $2,000 and we will provide the volunteer labor to rebuild the damaged roof. The house is actually pictured below in the PNC announcement posting.

AmeriCorps St. Louis is continuing the coordination of work and sending skilled chainsaw teams of their own into the field as well.

We are small but motivated team of volunteers, come join us! We will be here until June 30, 2008.

For information on how to volunteer at Project Newton County click here

To donate to HODR’s on going efforts click here

Questions? Email: info@hodr.org

HODR is excited to announce its second micro-deployment in the United States to begin Monday May 19, 2008 and run for approximately 30 days. “Project Newton County” will work to help the people of Newton County, Missouri recover from a May 10th tornado that cut a wide swath of destruction. Strong winds measuring up to F-4 strength spanned the entire 30-mile length of Newton County leaving a 1/4-mile wide mark through parts of the towns of Newtonia, Granby, Racine, and Neosho. Approximately 460 houses were affected by Saturday’s disaster including close to 200 houses either completely destroyed or suffering major damage, which left them uninhabitable. Newton County also witnessed the deaths of 18 of their residents including a 21-year-old EMT Firefighter who had just rescued 3 residents from the tornado’s harm before falling prey to it himself.

This community has witnessed much havoc in recent times and it is with great compassion that HODR along with other volunteer organizations will try to restore this community to a place of comfort and peace.

In conjunction with AmeriCorps, St. Louis, who were on the ground within in hours of the tornado, HODR will help Newton County in its recovery. This is not our first time working in conjunction with the very able folks of AmeriCorps St. Louis. We had the opportunity to work with them on our recent micro-deployment in Gassville, Arkansas in February 2008. We are looking forward to strengthening our partnership with them.

Projects will likely include staffing and coordination center support, community needs assessment support, tree and debris cleanup, home demolition, fence repair and possibly roofing and basic home repair. As always we welcome skilled and “unskilled” volunteers and will do our best to put trade skills and other talents to work in the community.

Follow us on our new operations “micro-blog”. Frequent small updates will be posted there.

For more information on how to volunteer click here

To donate click here

On May 10, 2008 a tornado that fluctuated between F4 and F2 struck parts of Oklahoma and Missouri. We arrived in Newton County, Missouri on May 16, 2008 and began assessing the damage and needs. AmeriCorps St. Louis’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) responded immediately helping local officials with search and rescue efforts. They have now transitioned into a support role coordinating volunteers and volunteer groups in the area as well as providing support in the emergency operations center (EOC). AmeriCorps St. Louis has welcomed our presence and taken time to show us the area and connect us with key individuals in Newton County. We will continue our assessment of the needs and how HODR might help over the next couple of days. Stay tuned to hodr.org and for more frequent/smaller updates visit our new “micro-blog” twitter.com/HODRops for interactive insight into what we are up to throughout the day and how we evaluate the potential for a volunteer project. The HODR ops “micro-blog” is a chance to read along and even ask us questions as our assessment progresses.