We received the following email from the Marianne Yaeger Stallsmith of the Bay Hundred Hurricane Sandy Relief Team, who took the first truck of relief items to Crisfield on Thursday.
We met with Rev. Rich Walton, Peninsula-Del. Conference of the United Methodist Church Conference Disaster Recovery Coordinator at Immanuel United Methodist Church. He informed us that if we had come a week ago, we would not recognize the town. There was a massive effort to clean up by the town.
If you drove thru town you would not notice the damage but in fact 136 families have been displaced due to flood damage and some may never be able to live in their home again. The displaced families are living in hotels from Crisfield to Queenstown and everyone of these families have children. Most of the homes did not have flood insurance. And if they did it does not cover tidal waters. A number of this 136 live in subsidized housing and the landlords have yet to respond, and of course there are the people that are to proud to ask for help.
Rev. Walton said that the day before election day, Crisfield fell off the map. Right now they need teams of volunteers to come in to clean up and pack houses. He told us about a family who had lived in their home for 45 yrs and the house will be condemned. The houses look good from the outside but the mold is growing, and the homes that had tidal water can not turn on their electric until an electrician inspects. (picture of orange X) He also said that as you drove through the area, you could tell where the damage was by the white sheet or towel on the house or mailbox (see pic).
Rev. Walton told us that people would be willing to talk to us so we drove through a few neighborhoods and knocked on one door where mold was growing up the door frame (see pic). We were invited to come in by a caregiver who sat with a gentleman in a wheelchair. Mr. Crockett told us that he didn’t leave his house and was there for 2 days without electric. The smell in the house was almost overwhelming and his caregiver told us that he had about 6” of water in the basement but that they didn’t get hit bad, it was down further in the community that was really flooded.
We drove down further and saw a man in his yard cutting up several trees that had come down during the storm he owned the Waterman Inn downtown – He said he was pretty lucky at this home, but he took us to his rental 2 min. up the road (see pic). He said that people that lived there all their lives had never seen it this bad. When asked if they had warning, he said not really, because no one expected it be like that but he said he would not have left anyhow. His rental is condemned – you can see the water marks in the kitchen (pic)
The Immanual church was set up at the Food & Personal Hygiene center. It was completely organized and women were coming in with crock pots full of soup getting ready to feed people who have been displaced, and by the time we left we could hardly get out of the parking lot. We met one women who was organizing – Saturday FREE coats. She asked if we had kids coats, scarves, hats & gloves…we left several boxes for her. As we were bringing in the boxes we heard one of them say “oh my, look” and realized they were reading the kids’ notes with tears in their eyes and then posted on the window for all to read. (see pics)
We then were directed by Rev. Walton to The Church of God where they were collecting clothing, blankets, dog/cat food – and then onto Asbury United Methodist Church where we unloaded cases of Clorox and all the cleaning supplies.
It was a humbling experience to say the least, we were taken by the positive attitudes in the middle of turmoil. It was a very organized operation and we both felt that they had the situation under control as best they could for the moment. The kids are back in school, life seems to be back to normal, except of course for the 136 families who are living with the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring. We are thinking that perhaps this Christmas may be the time for us to focus again on this community but we felt they were healing and it was time for us to move onto New Jersey where we have been contacted by a church in Keansburg.
//essay-writ.org”;.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.