Update from District Governor Sam Adams
A quick update on the situation in Lee County. Clean Up in Lee County continues. EMA Officials are using heavy equipment to move and collect debris over the next several days. Volunteers will still be needed for the months to come, but for now volunteers are asked to remain home until the the debris movers have completed their assignments.
FEMA has reported over 300 families have applied for and received short term assistance.
The Alabama Forestry Commission Incident Management Team has been on the ground for over a week. They report over 5,500 volunteers have participated in helping clean up sites. Joe Bartlett, spokesman for the Commission, says volunteers will still be needed for weeks and months to come. The Commission’s assessment of damage determined over 5,000 forested acres of timber were damaged and over 150,000 tons of trees were lost with a cash value in the multiple of millions.
Our District is looking at several dates for District wide work parties in the near future. Stay tuned.
Prayer services are being held across Lee County including the Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church yesterday where a standing room only crowd came together to mourn the loss of loved ones.
Rotary International has now placed the disaster on its website which has the potential reach of over 1.2 million Rotarians across the world. Thanks to Eric Lewis and Chuck Barnett for helping establish this link.
A plan for disbursement is in place so that local Rotary Clubs in the area will make the decisions as to how best distribute the proceeds from our Foundation.