Submitted
Almost a year ago, after days of heavy rain on deep snow, the Kettle and Granby rivers overflowed their banks and inundated Grand Forks and other areas of the Boundary region.
The unprecedented flooding damaged or destroyed hundreds of houses and other buildings, displacing their owners and causing widespread upheaval.
Emergency assistance came quickly – the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Samaritan’s Purse, along with local emergency responders. They helped affected residents deal with the immediate aftermath of the destruction once the water receded.
But now the region is in the midst of longer-term responses. And that’s where Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada comes in.
“They’re the rock stars of long-term recovery,” said Emmeline Marshall-Hill, housing branch director of Boundary Flood Recovery, of why they contacted the organization. “We knew we wanted them to come here to help our efforts to rebuild.”
Starting in May, MDS Canada will do just that. Under the direction of its B.C. unit, headed by Peter and Susan Thiessen, the organization will repair or rebuild homes for people who are considered in high need based on health, age, disability or finances.
“They did an amazing job of making it easy for us to come and work with them,” said MDS Canada executive director Ross Penner of the invitation from Grand Forks. “They cleared all the obstacles out of the way, made sure the permit process was smooth, took care of all the details.”
For Marshall-Hill, there was no question about clearing the way for MDS.
“We know what a great organization MDS is, how hard the volunteers work,” she says, adding its arrival will help meet the urgent need for housing in the area.
The goal, she says, is to ensure all residents impacted by the 2018 flooding have options for safe, permanent housing by October.
According to Penner, MDS Canada will need 15-20 volunteers a week from May to at least the end of August, and maybe a bit longer. “People are welcome to come for a week or longer,” he said, noting that MDS is looking forward to working with people in Grand Forks and the Boundary.
“We don’t do this alone. We work with the community. It’s their recovery. We are just privileged to come alongside to be of service.”
Marshall-Hill agrees.
“A core principle of all disaster recovery is no one can do it alone,” she said. “No single agency, no single non-profit organization, no single affected community. We all need to work together. It takes a village to raise a village.”
By working with multiple agencies, like MDS, Marshall-Hill believes “we can make it possible to return to a better than pre-disaster state, moving past the uncertainty of the past year, and encouraging new investment.”
Adds Grand Forks Mayor Brian Taylor: “It’s great to have support from within and outside of the community through initiatives like this, and to have some families get the help they need in rebuilding their homes. It really supports our recovery program’s objectives of ‘building back better’.”
This is the second year in a row that MDS Canada has responded to disasters in B.C. Last year the organization sent volunteers to Williams Lake, in the northern part of the province, to rebuild homes destroyed by wildfires. From May to November, 236 volunteers from the U.S. and Canada built four homes, providing 2,961 volunteer days of work.
Altogether, in 2018 a total of 5,203 MDS volunteers gave 48,041 days at 15 project sites in six states and one province in response to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and fire. They built 74 new homes and repaired 272 houses; total value of the work was $12,674,917 CDN.
People who want to volunteer should contact MDS at 1-800-241-8111. Church groups and families are also welcome.
