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Neighbors join efforts as Charles City cleans up

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

School is back in session and employees are back at the office –– but that doesn’t slow down the need for volunteers to help Charles City residents clean house, throw out debris and dispose of sandbags stacked during Thursday’s pre-flood frenzy.

Volunteers Carla Winterink and Jill Streich were ready to help organize volunteers with Neighbors Across the Land (NATL), waiting in the 500 North Grand parking lot on a windy Monday morning. Both Winterink and Streich have been involved in county volunteer efforts since Thursday. NATL continues those efforts, Winterink and Streich said.

“This organization is taking care of helping remove the sandbags, taking appliances out of your house, helping you with cleaning,” Streich said. “We’re organizing the volunteers who can go in and help you clean if you need that.”

NATL is organized by Response Director Greg Conklin and his wife Marie, and targets smaller communities to help with recovery operations from tornado cleanup and other natural disasters.

“If a fire chief or department doesn’t have a lot of experience in natural disasters, we’ll help them deal with unaffiliated volunteers. We don’t need a national or state declaration to help,” Greg Conklin said. “We just go and do, plain and simple.”

NATL started accepting volunteers at 10 a.m. Monday in the North Grand parking lot, and maintains a list of volunteers who’ve called in waiting for jobs. The group originally had a list of about 30 households that needed volunteer labor, although some homeowners have called in to be removed after friends or family help clean the home.

“Now we’ve just got to get the volunteers put with the jobs, call them and get them sent out,” Streich said.

The challenge for volunteer recruitment comes after people return to school and work, Conklin said.

“We’re still getting jobs in (but) we have not had any volunteers come in,” Conklin said Monday afternoon. “The workday and school’s back in session, that’s sucked the volunteer base up, plus the whole north-central part of the state flooded. Most of our volunteers’ houses have been flooded.”

The Conklins have been pumping water out of their own home for the last month, he added, and had someone checking in on their sump pump over the weekend to ensure their basement didn’t flood while they were working in Charles City starting on Thursday.

Households that need assistance should first register at the Floyd County Courthouse and file paperwork with their insurance, Conklin said. He expects the need for volunteers to rise through the week as homeowners hear back from insurance companies.

NATL will stay as long as ministry funding, volunteer count and the need holds, Conklin said. The initial focus will be on removing sandbags and pulling flood debris out curbside by the city deadline of Oct. 3.

“We’re rallying to go get sandbags. We have upwards of 7,000 bags to get for those who cannot bring them in themselves,” Conklin said. “Tomorrow we’re anticipating some volunteers to come in. We still need volunteers. It’s not over.”

Streich and her family spent Thursday sandbagging and delivering bags to residences with some of the Charles City High School students. Winterink helped county emergency officials direct traffic and volunteers through the efforts before the Cedar River crested.

“You’d literally have to grab a bottle of water, bring it to (volunteers) and tell them to stop,” Winterink said.

“Some of those houses that we sandbagged, my husband and my son and I went back and helped un-sandbagged,” Streich said. “There’s going to be a lot of people in that boat. Over the weekend you have all those high school kids to help, but now it’s Monday. Everybody’s back at school, back at work. Who’s there to help?”

Those who need assistance can call NATL at 641-691-7204 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

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