Lewis County, Five Years Later (clockwise from top-left):
A home installed with cedar siding thanks to Kennewick UMC; Elaine Lawler recalls the first night of flooding on Dec. 6, 2007; Jim Truitt gives a tour of a home on Brunoff Farms; a newly built home featuring a ramp and steps; one of the many cows at the Brunoff Farm. Most were lost during the Pacific Northwest storms and flooding in 2007.
Lewis County: Long-Term Healing | By Jesse N. Love with Jim Truitt
Chehalis, Wash. – In Dec. of 2007, Channels focused on the aftermath of floods in Lewis County. A disaster of this size tested the will of this community. The United Methodist Church through its local churches and Volunteers in Mission teams were all there to help provide a Christian presence in a time of uncertainty and brokenness. How has life changed since 2007? What are the new challenges facing this rural community? Channels revisits Lewis County to see how much has progressed during this time of healing.
OVERFLOWING MEMORIES
Jim Truitt, his wife Pat, Susie Duren, and Elaine Lawler are having lunch at the Kit Carson Restaurant on Interstate Avenue in Chehalis. Truitt is revisiting Lewis County on a “farewell tour” after working with this community towards long-term recovery from the floods caused by the Pacific Northwest storms of 2007 and 2009.
Lawler, who served on Adna Flood Relief, remembers the morning of Dec. 6, 2007. Lewis County quickly succumbed to waters creeping over embankments near the Chehalis River. On the night of the flood, Lawler visited house to house, transporting people to the water’s edge. She would see who needed help and gathered whatever they had, like drinking water and cleaning supplies. Later on, she gathered other volunteers and assessed damages to homes along the river, identifying sites that had the worst damage and delivering packaged meals to those in need.
“Boistfort Valley was wiped out,” Lawler shared. The flood created four to five feet of mud in its wake. According to David Ammons of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Pacific-Northwest storms of 2007 cost at least $1 billion in damage.
“It was above and beyond what we expected. It speeded up the recovery process for us tenfold.”
-John Brunoff
OUR UMVIM RESPONSE
Truitt serves as the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) Disaster Response Coordinator. He along with Duren of Adna Flood Relief and Rochester UMC worked to send teams out to designated areas in need of repairs. Within the last four and a half years, VIM teams closed over 46 cases and managed in excess of $45,000 in donations. Together, Truitt and Duren coordinated over 500 volunteers who donated 5,400+ volunteer hours in this area.
“Tremendous effort – I don’t know what more you guys could have done,” shares John Brunoff, commenting on the work of the VIM teams. Brunoff operates a dairy farm in Adna, which was hit very hard in 2007, notably for the loss of his dairy cattle. It was a traumatizing event for him and his family to endure. Today, Brunoff continues to grow his cow population and manage day-to-day business at a steady pace. He credits the effort of Truitt and his teams in serving the community through its various rebuilding projects: “It was above and beyond what we expected. It speeded up the recovery process for us tenfold.”
Fred Gallagher shares, “You did more than meet our needs. You did more for us than what really had to be done. It’s something we’ll never ever be able to repay.” VIM teams helped make repairs in his home including drying out rooms, removing mold, installing insulation, sheetrock, flooring, showers, tiles and more. Inspired by the work of these teams, Gallagher began paying efforts forward in the community: “For the last three years I’ve been working at the food bank every Friday. I’ve done a quite a bit of volunteering.”
Out of the 46 cases closed, many local United Methodist Churches* and their teams have helped restore several homes affected by the 2007 and 2009 floods. For example, Olympia First UMC helped replace an electric furnace as well as many components related to its install. In another home, VIM team members helped install sheetrock and flooring. The people of Fairwood UMC helped by installing tubs and sinks. The young people of Kennewick First UMC installed cedar siding and an ADA approved ramp alongside a house. When asked which cases were the most memorable, Truitt responds: “All the cases had different impacts and are memorable for some reason. The home of Fred and Glenda Gallagher will always be in my mind as one of the places I really enjoyed working and sending teams.” He shares, “They were always so appreciative and caring no matter how much they have been through. They always seemed to be upbeat and positive and willing to do whatever it takes.”
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS
Although the casework for recovering homes has been completed, Lewis County is still a community that is emotionally, mentally, and spiritually wounded after five years. “Unemployment got up to 15%. Our county is struggling right on top of the flood,” shares Duren. “It has not been the same. You can’t have stress and issues, stress and issues, then have a healing process.”
Post-traumatic stress from flood-related disasters affects many to varying degrees. The call for counseling meets head-on with a rural community that may be hesitant to confront feelings of deep loss. Opening up about destroyed family relationships, property, finances, and overall security is something many in the community would rather not relive through counseling. The transition from long-term recovery to long-term healing falls onto the spiritual community to help those acting out in pain and for those locking emotions away with the possibility of emotions manifesting itself into other harmful outlets. “The long-term recovery was on the backbone of the churches. They stuck with this for the long-haul,” shares Duren. For long-term healing, local churches and communities of faith have opportunities each day to help those on the path beyond “the new normal”.
“Remember this for the rest of your life. Remember how important it is that you helped someone from this big thing, so you can help others with the little things in life.”
-Elaine Lawler
REMEMBER LEWIS COUNTY
For Duren, being there for her neighbors was more than just community service. “I feel very strongly that the work I’m doing here is a mission-kind of work. I feel very connected to the community and the people in it. I gained a lot from doing God’s work here, using skills and talents I’ve been given.” Duren sees the challenges she has faced in flood relief and in daily life are going to be sources of strength as she faces an ‘adventurous’ future that is uncertain.
“If you have lost everything, recovery may be a 10-year process,” Lawler admits. But through this devastation of physical muck and emotional brokenness, life goes on. “The human spirit is amazing” shares Lawler as tears form. “I can’t believe I’m still emotional about this.” For those dealing with great trauma, like those suffering from an ecological disaster, Lawler shares this message: “Remember this for the rest of your life. Remember how important it is that you helped someone from this big thing, so you can help others with the little things in life.”
WHAT’S NEXT
Recovery efforts were coordinated by the Lewis County Long-Term Recovery Group (LTRG) from February 2008 until they ran out of funding in March 2010. The PNW Conference decided to establish a Single Point Recovery organization through Rochester UMC to continue the recovery efforts. Duren was hired as the caseworker, Gene Weaver acted as the fiscal agent, and Truitt acted as the VIM coordinator. Over the next two and a half years, volunteers from all the major religious organizations and several non-profit organizations worked diligently to close all the open cases that were transferred from the LTRG.
The United Methodist Volunteers in Mission and its Early Response Teams will now focus on other areas in the PNW. Rebuilding the White Swan area after fires consumed over 200 acres of land is on the agenda. Also, as of this article’s release, teams are preparing to help those on the east coast for recovery after Hurricane Sandy, but are on standby pending more reports from The Northeast Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church.
1 Ammons, David (January 28, 2008). “Gregoire: Remember storm victims, consider changes”. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
*Here are some of the churches that helped: Benton City UMC, Blaine Memorial UMC, Cornerstone UMC, CUP, Dallas UMC, Green Lake UMC, Issaquah UMC, Kent First UMC, Lakewood UMC, Leavenworth UMC, Manito UMC, Marysville UMC, Mill Plain UMC, plus 16 others.
Check out http://lewiscountywa.gov/ for Chehalis River Basin Early-Warning System Now On-Line.
Susie Duren served as the caseworker for the Lewis County United Methodist Single Point Recovery effort.
Elaine Lawler served as the Adna Flood Relief Coordinator.
Jim Truitt serves as the PNW Conference UMVIM Disaster Response Coordinator.
Jesse N. Love serves as the print and publications manager for the PNWUMC.
