By Bill Davis | The flood that soaked South Carolina this month was so massive that there’s not a good adjective to describe its size. Now, the recovery looks more like a patchwork quilt than a safety net from the perspective of state Disaster Recovery Coordinator Kevin Shwedo.
“We’ve got everybody coming to help,” said Shwedo, the state’s head of the Department of Motor Vehicles who has been tasked to lead a pop-up state team of professionals to deal with the recovery. “The federal government with FEMA and the Small Business Administration, state government, counties, cities, non-governmental organizations, and even bumblebees and grasshoppers.”
Umm … bumblebees and grasshoppers?
Shwedo was referring to faith-based rescuers: teams of trained disaster responders from the Southern Baptist Convention who wear yellow shirts (bumblebees) and responders from the United Methodist Committee on Relief who wear green (grasshoppers).
Shwedo praised the bumblebees and grasshoppers for always being visible and available at disaster response centers throughout the state, and for being able to act quicker than some government arms, tied at times by red tape.
Sue Harmon, operations director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s disaster relief office, said that while her organization doesn’t track total numbers of volunteers its bigger sister has provided in South Carolina, it does track total volunteer days.
As of close of day Thursday, the convention had contributed 4,279 volunteer days. But, Harmon added that number represents many volunteers pulling multiple days, and it changes constantly. So far, the convention has welcomed responders from as far away as Oklahoma, she said, and expects to welcome more from states hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. “Canada’s coming next week,” Harmon said.
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said recently that the agency “has the authority necessary to lean forward and leverage the entire emergency management team in response and recovery efforts. This team includes not only government but also the private sector, non-profits, and citizens themselves.”
FEMA spokesman Jim Homstad said close to 1,300 agency personnel are on the ground in South Carolina, responding to assistance applications from over 70,000 residents spread out over 24 designated counties, with residents of Richland County comprising over one-fifth of that number.
So far, Homstad said that FEMA has approved more than $53 million in grants across South Carolina so far. As for reports that families in mobile homes having an even harder time of getting approved for assistance, Homstad said that all cases are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
It’s tough to gauge how many non-governmental and faith-based groups have shown up to help out South Carolina, according to Tim Ervolina, chief executive officer of the United Way Association of South Carolina.
Ervolina’s organization’s Columbia office this week served as a rallying point for the various groups, but had to keep getting chairs as the number swelled and swelled.
And the state is going to need all the help it can get, according to Ervolina, because of the scope of the storm’s damage across the state, and for the amount of time he expects it will take for South Carolina to rebound fully.
While neither FEMA nor the state have released a damage estimate in the wake of the flooding, unofficial estimates have hit the $1 billion mark, according to several sources.
“This is going to be a ‘deep ask,’” said Ervolina, explaining that it was vital for those who already donate to charitable organizations to maintain regular contributions and dig deeper to give even more at this crucial time.
Ervolina caused a storm last week in this publication when he said FEMA was more focused on denying claims than filling them. This week, Ervolina did not change his position, but added that he was trying to “tamp down expectations” of a speedy recovery paid in full by the federal government.
Shwedo said he saw it differently — that the federal workers were “good people bent on helping,” and that persistence will be the key going forward. Both said that residents impacted by the flood needed to keep going back to FEMA repeatedly and not be deterred by initial rejections of claims.
Shwedo said it’s even been tough on him just learning a “whole new language” of FEMA nomenclature and that the inspectors will help residents jump through what Ervolina called the agency’s “narrow hoop of proof.”
FEMA, which took a beating for its response to Hurricane Katrina, has changed its scope and mission, according to Ervolina, who reminded everyone that the agency has new restrictions placed on it these days.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!