Providing Aid to Those Who Were Ignored by Relief Efforts

Here in this town of 11,336, just 90 miles northeast of where Hurricane Charley made landfall, the strong Florida

sun and palm trees provide an odd contrast to the signs of devastation. Downed power lines trail beside highways, old oaks have toppled onto homes, shingles have been torn from roofs, and trailer parks lie in shambles. While it’s been days since the storm passed through, gas stations remain closed and boarded, and the road outside the municipal building is choked with cars whose owners are waiting for food, water, and other aid.

The Christian Contractors Association, a Brooksville, Fla., organization of Christian construction workers who provide repair and building services to those in need, decided to set up shop here after getting a call from the local fire chief asking for help. When not assisting after disasters in Florida and elsewhere, the group helps widows, the elderly, and the severely disabled with work such as constructing wheelchair ramps or performing basic repairs.

When the group arrived, its leaders found that “nobody else was here,” says Scott W. Jager, president of the charity. He says that in the areas where the group has been working, nobody from a relief effort has been by to survey the damage.

Fixing Damaged Roofs

While most of the news coverage of the hurricane has been focused on the coastal areas hardest hit, such as Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, charity leaders like Mr. Jager say relief efforts extend far inland, with damage being reported over a 200-mile stretch.

“Normally, hurricanes reduce in force once they make land. This didn’t,” says Mr. Jager. “It narrowed but it got all the way into at least Kissimee. The state is damaged from one end to the other.”

He adds: “Everything that is built inland isn’t built to withstand 120-mile-an-hour winds. These inland areas are where all the people are who can’t afford to live on the coast.”

A member of the state’s emergency-response team, the group is using a nearby gym as a place for its roughly 200 relief workers to sleep.

Mr. Jager and his small charity are leading crews of volunteers in “dry-ins,” covering damaged roofs and clearing trees from walks and driveways so that families can return to their homes.

About a dozen experienced construction workers and scores of others who pitched in with the group in previous storms have returned to help, in addition to teams of AmeriCorps members, state forestry workers, and assorted other volunteers sent by the state through its volunteer hotline.

While plenty of people have volunteered, Mr. Jager says, it’s more difficult to find people qualified to manage each crew.

Glenn A. Kasper Sr., state director of the contractors’ group, has divided a town map into a grid of 28 squares, and assigned his eight crews to different squares.

Rather than running from one spot to another around town in response to requests for help, working methodically through the area using a grid “is the way to make sure it gets done,” says Mr. Kasper, one of the group’s 12 paid employees. If a roof is damaged and the owners aren’t home, “cover it anyway,” so long as the emergency operations center has asked for the repairs, he tells crews.

From here, the group plans to move southwest along the trail of devastation left by the storm, protecting rural homes from further damage before reaching the hardest-hit areas, where it will begin helping to rebuild. Four other counties have already asked for its help.

Smoother Process

Each storm is a little different, says Mr. Jager, a born-again Christian who says he has been helping out after storms since 1989.

Unlike after previous storms, the group has plenty of supplies and workers, thanks to government, business, and charity coordination.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent 13 truckloads of building supplies to the group’s new, 168,000-square-foot warehouse in Brooksville, due north of Tampa, asking the charity to coordinate distribution of the supplies to other groups. Other businesses and charities have also supplied extension ladders and other materials.

As a result of such cooperation, the operation has gone very smoothly compared with previous efforts, Mr. Jager says.

The numerous disaster-preparation meetings held in recent years by charities working in the state have helped his group form bonds with many others in the disaster-relief arena and it is now able to differentiate “the doers from the talkers.”

Mr. Kasper recalls a frustrating meeting years ago when the group desperately needed building supplies after another disaster. Another charity offered them $30,000. The only catch: The money had to be spent on blankets. “It was August,” Mr. Kasper says in disgust.

What Christian Contractors needs now is better ways to communicate with its workers during a crisis. “The biggest thing we’re running short on is two-way radios,” Mr. Kasper says.

The crews are trying to communicate with personal cell phones, but calls often don’t go through or fade in and out because some transmission towers were knocked out in the storm. And the calls add up. Mr. Jager estimates that his group is spending about $3,000 a month on cell-phone calls.

Mr. Jager hopes to persuade a wireless network to donate call time in the future. He and Mr. Kasper have started to put together a wish list as they work.

“It would be ideal if we could get one of those FEMA tractor-trailers with satellite phones” and other equipment, Mr. Kasper says, breaking off in mid-sentence to take a call from a crew leader on his cell phone, which rings constantly.

The charity needs money, too. Mr. Jager put about $800 worth of hotel bills on his credit card the first night the group arrived, after what he calls a “miscommunication” about finding places for its workers to stay. The next day, a donor who had previously given to the group spontaneously gave $5,000 to cover such expenses, he says — a big help. Other donations are also coming in.

But not enough to meet the needs. Mr. Jager says it costs about $100,000 a month to run the organization, which is supported largely by donations from individuals, and leases out part of its warehouse to cover its mortgage.

“We’re going to get stunned with all kinds of unmet needs,” Mr. Jager predicts. “It’s so widespread. There are eight counties we want to have a presence in. It’s going to stretch our resources.”