After having all three of our deployment trailers in the field from April 29th and until June 30, we finally have all of our equipment and personnel back home. Our staff needs some well-deserved R & R, and our equipment needs to cleaned, refurbished and restocked. Here is a summary of our last few months and what we look forward to.

· We helped respond to a situation where 425 tornados hit sixteen southern states in four days. These storms killed over 350 people. The area was utterly devastated.
· During the time from April 29th through June 30th, NECHAMA conducted the following operations:
o We worked in Mississippi on tornado cleanup and on rescue and recovery from April 28th until May 18th.
o We worked in Birmingham, Alabama on tornado cleanup from May 19th through June 30th. It was reported that over 250 people lost their lives as a result of the Alabama tornadoes.
o During our 37 days in Birmingham, NECHAMA made it possible for 24 families to get back into their homes.
o We conducted flood relief operations in Memphis, Tennessee as a result of severe flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
o We spent four days helping the people of North Minneapolis, Minnesota to recover following a large tornado that utterly devastated the area.

We will definitely be responding to the Minot, North Dakota floods and expect to be working there through the rest of the summer and fall.

Before we can respond, we need to wait for about 9 feet of water to recede. We also need to wait until the City of Minot has inspected all of the flood-damaged homes in the area, because of this, we expect to begin flood recovery and cleanup operations in Minot around August 1st.

Please continue to watch our website www.nechama.org for further updates regarding NECHAMA’s upcoming deployment to Minot.

Thanks again for all of the help you’ve given to NECHAMA. Without your efforts, we would be unable to help disaster victims to recover.

NECHAMA will complete its deployments to Birmingham, AL and Memphis, TN by next Thursday, June 30th . These were two very successful deployments. Thanks again to all of our volunteers and others who helped with logistics.

As you’ve heard, there is extensive flooding along the Missouri River in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Missouri. In addition, the city of Minot, ND has ordered large scale evacuations due to the flooding of the Mouse River. NECHAMA is actively evaluating these situations and will announce by the middle of July where we will be deploying to assist with flood cleanup and recovery.

PLEASE WATCH BOTH YOUR EMAILS AND NECHAMA’s WEBSITE FOR OUR NEXT DEPLOYMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS.

NECHAMA will be extending its current tornado cleanup deployment in and around Birmingham, AL to June 30th. This extends our current deployment by fifteen days. Our ability to extend this deployment is dependent upon 1) the availability of meaningful work for our volunteers; and 2) if there is a sufficient number of volunteers to work with us. Later this summer, NECHAMA is planning to undertake a long term rehabilitation and rebuilding effort in the Birmingham, AL area.

Immediately after the Birmingham deployment ends, NECHAMA will be undertaking extensive flood cleanup work in Memphis, TN as a result of the flooding of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. We’ve been told that there are at least 1,000 homes in the Memphis area that have sustained flood damage.

If you and your group are interested in either the Birmingham or Memphis deployments, please contact NECHAMA’s Volunteer Coordinator, Amy Cytron, at acytron@nechama.org. To receive email notices of NECHAMA’s future storm cleanup activities, please register at info@nechama.org.

Thanks for helping NECHAMA to heal the world – one storm-damaged home at a time.

NECHAMA –Jewish Response to Disaster, The Jewish Disaster Response Corps along with the Bronfman Center at NYU and in conjunction with Knesseth Israel Congregation will be opening up a volunteer project in Birmingham Alabama to help the communities of Alabama recovering from the tornados that devastated the state. We will be helping in the cleanup and rebuilding in many communities around the area. People or groups who are interested in joining us in this work should contact the effort by e mail at recovery@kicong.org or by phone at (205) 259-6986. Please join us in this effort.
Sincerely,
NECHAMA-Jewish Response to Disaster The JDRC, and Rabbi Yammer