Right now we are addressing the immediate, emergency needs for food, shelter, and clothing of affected individuals and families. “Our past experience with survivors of natural disasters has proven time and again that financial assistance to cover these immediate living expenses is the best way we can help,” said Mark Minick, LSS senior vice president for Disaster Response. “Additionally, we are asking for your prayers for the families whose lives have been devastated.”

LSSDR is grateful for any financial assistance to support these relief efforts at this time. The quickest and easiest avenue is to make on online donation to LSS Disaster Response.  Designate “Dallas Tornadoes 2012” in the drop-down menu.

In addition to working with LWR, Texas VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster), and other community groups, LSSDR will also be working with local congregations and the Synod and District to provide emergency grants to those who are in need.

Damage Assessment:

The Red Cross has assembled a preliminary damage assessment based on verbal conversations with field staff and emergency managers in the affected areas.  Through the Metroplex area the following information has been gathered:

This will be verified with actual damage assessments, on the streets which will continue.  So far damages are in five primary locations, with Lancaster being the largest.

Additional damage assessment teams are arriving in the area to continue assessing damages and to be available if there are additional damages in other parts of the region.

Resources: Shelter 

Resources: Food

Southern Baptist Texas Convention Kitchen (SBTCK)is set up in Lancaster to provide meals.  USDA and HEB are coordinating with SBTCK for food delivery and local food banks and restaurants are supporting the initial breakfast meal.

Fundraising efforts to mobilize donations and transport the hay are ongoing and include regular PSA announcements on country radio stations KASE 101 and KVET in Austin.  Additional exposure has come through “Speaking of Horses,” a radio show out of Wisconsin hosted by renowned equine expert Wayne Williams.  Wayne attended the “Roll In the Hay” benefit and captured interviews of the participants, including World Champion bull rider Scott Mendes. Check out Wayne’s interviews and some of the bull-riding action here  [Note: interviews start at about 1:45 minutes].

Please consider supporting Haylift to Texas by making a donation through www.lssdisasterresponse.org.

Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response (LSSDR) continues to help the wildfire victims rebuild their lives, and we recently received a $50,000 [donation/grant/check] designated to address the ongoing unmet needs of the most vulnerable families and individuals whose homes were destroyed.

“A Roll In the Hay” is coming together with the help of agricultural professionals, farmers, Farm Aid, and transportation employees from Texas, Tennessee, Ohio and
other areas.  Proceeds from the benefit will be used to purchase hay and transportation through Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response, a 501c(3) nonprofit charity. Motivating people to donate hay or provide reasonably priced hay to the cause has been the easiest part of this endeavor; the problem is funding the transportation of up to 100,000 tons of hay from other states to Texas. It is estimated that it costs $3,500 for one semi-truck to travel from Ohio to Texas with donated hay.

“Many people are still in need of help with hay for their livestock due to the drought and wildfires,” said Jean Crawford, Haylift To Texas event organizer. “Farmers north of us are willing to sell us hay at very reasonable prices or even donate hay if we are able to absorb the cost of transportation. The event will be fun and support a great cause.”

“A Roll In the Hay” is a family event, with a host of country entertainers performing throughout the afternoon and evening. They are:  Rich O’Toole, John Wayne Schulz (of American
Idol), Matt Begley & Bittersweet Whiskey, Bo Phillips and Brian Keane, Shy Blakeman, Seth Candan, Nick Verzosa, Kimberly Kelly and the Texas Renegade Band, Mark Alan Atwood and Brimstone, Dewey Wayne, and Russell Ray & Ken Reynolds.

The Cotton Gin houses a professional bull-riding arena, and cowboys from the Professional Bull Riders, organized by retired World Champion Scott Mendes, will be there to do some bull
riding.

Several other country artists who will be on tour but want to participate, are donating auction items to help raise money for this endeavor, and encouraging others to do the same. They are: Miranda Lambert, Pat Green, Leeroy Parnell, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lee Ann Womack, Stoney Larue, and Randy Rogers Band. Callahan’s General Store, Cavenders, Pabst Brewing Company, and many others are donating items to the silent auction.

The Cotton Gin, 441 Railroad St. Maxwell, TX 78656, is located half way between Lockhart & Martindale on Hwy 142.

Plan to join us for what promises to be a wonderful Sunday afternoon!

Tickets (at the door): $25 Adults, $10 Child. Children 10 and under FREE.

Online donations can be made at www.LSSDisasterResponse.org.

Contact:   Jean Crawford, 512-475-4818, haylifttotexas@yahoo.com

Wildfire survivors can download the loan application at the SBA website or fill out an application online.

Additional information about SBA loans is available through SBA’s Disaster Assistance Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 or TTY 1-800-877-8339. Advice is also available by email.

Texans can register online, via web-enabled phone, or by telephone via FEMA’s toll-free numbers: 1-800-621-3362 or TTY 1-800-462-7585.   711-Relay or Video Relay Service users can call 1-800-621-3362. Assistants are available by phone from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

That beautiful rain did wonders to assist the firefighters in Bastrop County with their ongoing efforts to extinguish the Bastrop County Complex Fire, which is now reported as 95% contained. Other wildfires in Central Texas continue to have hot spots, but are fully contained. Survivors have been able to re-enter their neighborhoods to survey the damage and to begin to get a sense of what they will need for the way forward. And that way forward can be a long and winding road. Piecing one’s life back together after a disaster is a journey, one through which each disaster survivor must work to adjust to the “new normal” of the post wildfire world. It is during this process of long-term recovery that agencies like LSSDR work to walk side-by-side with survivors, helping them to develop a personalized road-map so that they may successfully navigate that long and winding road to recovery.

As I ponder the beginning of the long-term recovery process for wildfire survivors, I keep coming back to something I learned from the emergency response personnel in both Bastrop and Spicewood, Texas last week—that roots of trees can burn underground. I know, it sounds impossible, but it happens. Firefighters across Central Texas have been dealing with flare-ups due to the roots of trees burning underground, weakening the stability of the trees, causing them to eventually fall over, thus letting the fire escape from the roots only to reignite a blaze. This is a poignant analogy for what disaster survivors may experience throughout long-term recovery. While all on the surface may seem to have calmed, there may be emotional, spiritual, and financial fires burning deep down that will flare-up at a moment’s notice due to the trauma of the disaster event and the stress of the recovery process. Yes, people’s roots are burning. And it is LSSDR and our partner agencies that plan to catch them as they fall and work with them to prevent those burning roots from spreading the fire. Whether through emotional and spiritual care or long-term disaster case management, we strive to be that gentle, soothing, thirst-quenching rain that brings with it renewal, resilience and hope.

So, once again I ask you to please pray for rain.

Heather Neuroth Gatlin, MPA

Vice President of Disaster Response

Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response

During the past week we have established or re-established partnerships with Lutheran World Relief, Lutheran Disaster Response, LCMS World Relief/Human Care, Thrivent, Concordia University – Texas, all of the Texas based judicatories, numerous congregations, and hundreds if not now thousands of individual donors and local businesses.

Some of the early response items we’ve been a part of include:

• Providing emergency grants to Lutheran families and others identified by Lutheran congregations who have lost their homes due to the fires.
• Working with local Lutheran Churches in the area that are collecting in-kind donations for those affected.   We help coordinate these efforts to get the needed items into the hands of the survivors.
• Beginning to activate resources for spiritual/emotional care for families and children, which will be an enormous and on-going need.
• We will continue to identify Lutheran and other families and work with emergency personnel to begin the process with relief and recovery stages of this ongoing and major disaster effort for the Lutheran and greater community.

It is too early to know what specific role we will play in the long term recovery (case management, volunteer coordination, rebuilding, etc) as we are just not there yet.  What we do know is that we will be there for the long-haul on behalf of the community to help special needs and vulnerable populations (low income, elderly, disabled, etc), truly the least of these.

It’s easy during a time like this to overlook the traumatic effect a natural disaster has on young people close to the scene.  Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response team is partnering with church congregations in Bastrop and Smithville that are holding a free day camp tomorrow for school age kids K-6^th that aims to specifically address these issues.  We hope and expect that tomorrow’s camp will be the first of many similar activities in the weeks and months ahead as the recovery process begins in earnest.

Personally, I attended my first meeting of the Central Texas VOAD today. VOAD stands for Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters.  It was an unscheduled meeting as you might imagine under the circumstances and it was held in our Austin headquarters.  Heather Gatlin from our LSSDR group is the president of Central Texas VOAD. What was immediately apparent was that every major volunteer organization in the Central Texas area is represented in VOAD. The American Red Cross, the Austin Disaster Relief Network (ADRN), Catholic Charities, The Capitol Area Food Bank, several other faith-based groups and many other volunteer groups. They packed our largest conference room. If you follow the local news, you will likely see many of these listed as organizations that others can help support in various ways. What most people may not know is that there is an established organization, VOAD, where information, ideas and plans are shared and a concerted effort is made to make the most efficient use of the available, valuable resources.  It is not and will not be easy.  But this particular group has been through a couple of events already on the local level responding to Hurricanes Rita, Ike and even Katrina. Lessons learned, knowledge and wisdom gained. We hope and pray that that hard-earned wisdom will be highly valued during this recovery effort.

A strong theme that permeated the meeting today: it’s on everybody’s mind. Hearts are open now. People are concerned now. Donations of goods, dollars and volunteer time are at their zenith now. The fires will eventually be doused and the media and the public will soon aim their attention elsewhere. Meanwhile, those who have lost everything have a long road ahead of them to recovery. It’s the groups that make up the Central Texas VOAD that will be the ones helping people recover over the long haul once the spotlight is removed. Let’s not forget them, let’s not discount their experience in these matters even when mistakes are made, and let’s not forget the difficult time ahead for the victims of the wildfires.

LSSDR is in need of financial assistance to support these relief efforts at this time. The quickest and easiest avenue is to make on online donation to LSS Disaster Response.  Designate “Disaster Response” in the drop-down menu.

In the short-term, LSSDR is addressing the immediate, emergency needs for food/shelter/clothing of individuals and families affected.  This will be an ongoing response through congregations until all are served or until the funds run out.

In the long-term, and as funds allow, LSSDR will assist low-income families without insurance who lost their homes and possessions, as well as renters stripped of their belongings.
Spiritual and emotional care will be available to those in need of support on an ongoing basis.

We will update information on the LSS website.  Additionally, you can help us by sharing this information throughout your own networks and on Facebook.

The thousands of families whose lives have been devastated, and the firefighters who are risking their lives battling the firestorms, are in need of our prayers.  Thank you … and God bless!

LSS Disaster Response is putting plans in place today in order to be able to effectively respond to the many areas of need. Our focus, as always, will be:

• Short Term Emergency Needs
• Long Term Response
• Spiritual/Emotional Care

Many of our donors have asked how they can pledge financial assistance to response efforts at this time. The quickest and easiest way to do so is to make on online donation to LSS Disaster Response.  Designate “Disaster Response” in the drop down menu.

Our prayers are with the hundreds of families who have been affected and the firefighters who are bravely confronting this disaster.

We will continue update our information as necessary.

Mother Nature, however, can be full of surprises and the occasional hurricane happens outside of these months. Every year, experts take their best shots at forecasting the probability of major hurricane activity and landfall in the Atlantic. And every year, the Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response  (LSSDR) team braces and prepares for … the unexpected.

What does this mean in the daily LSSDR scheme of things? This is the window of opportunity for a proactive rather than reactive approach to disaster preparation. LSSDR preparedness is a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, assessment, and improvement. All systematic planning efforts aside, when emergencies do occur — whether small scale or catastrophic — they can be overwhelming, for the communities they impact and the agencies that serve them.

The early stages of disaster response are typically filled with activity (some would call it chaos) to help meet the basic, immediate humanitarian needs of the affected population. It is a fluid environment, a moving target, as the situation “on the ground” changes rapidly – and the beginning of the long-term response structure occurs behind the scenes.

So when Hurricane “Next” comes down the pike, are we ready? Yes we are. Ready for whatever comes our way. And as a long-term recovery agency, we’re here for the long haul.

LSSDR is a long-term disaster recovery agency, serving as the local affiliate of Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR), a national collaborative effort of the Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. LSSDR response is shaped by both the financial resources available to us and a clearer understanding of where we can best allocate those resources to have the greatest impact. In the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster, we’ll keep you posted through www.lsss.org and our facebook page. To get involved, volunteer or donate here.