BY KATE CARLSON kcarlson@mdn.net
Since their work began a year ago, two Midland-based disaster case managers have met with 103 families in the Great Lakes Bay region, providing relief from damage caused by the June 2017 flood.
The disaster case managers, Katie Vokal and Anne Wortley, are nearing the end of their funding supply. Most of the families they have provided assistance to are from Midland, and 77 of the households they met with have received financial help to repair damage caused by the flooding.
Their job was to visit homes and assess damage, connect people with other nonprofits or available aid if possible, appeal to FEMA for financial help, and provide home repair through local contractors when deemed necessary.
The range of damage they have seen has been very wide, Vokal said. Some families received small amounts of financial help for things like a broken pipe, all the way to $30,000 to repair foundation, and extensive home repair, Vokal explained.
Vokal and Wortley are working through the Great Lakes Bay Region Long Term Disaster Recovery Group —made up from various community leaders, nonprofit and government agencies. Cases were presented to a board made up of these local leaders to get funding approved, while protecting anonymity of families. Vokal and Wortley’s salary is funded through a grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the humanitarian disaster recovery arm of the Michigan Conference United Methodist Church.
More than $400,000 was initially raised by local nonprofits and individuals for flood relief through the Midland Area Community Foundation, which dwindled shortly after the flood to affected families through vouchers and gift cards. Vokal and Wortley have used the remainder of the funds through their work, and another fundraiser from local nonprofits and churches — totaling about $280,000 with a remaining balance of about $30,000.
“Our goal is to spend every penny and leave it right here in the community,” Vokal said. “So many of our contractors have been local, so funds are staying in the area.”
As they near the end of their work in meeting with families to help them restore their homes from flood damage, the case managers said they have come to appreciate all of the nonprofits and resources in place in the Midland community. They were not able to help every single family affected by flooding, but have reached out to 2,000 households compiled from a list from the Midland Emergency Manager, 211 and FEMA.
Vokal and Wortley still have about 20 households they are working with to help fully recover from the flood.
“It’s been a great experience. We worked very well together,” Wortley said. “We brought a lot of hope to this community. This was devastating. We met a lot of people who shed a lot of tears, and were very thankful for the help we were able to provide.”
Vokal and Wortley were initially working from the Strosacker Building, but were offered office space at Trinity Lutheran Church in Midland. Trinity is one of several local churches that stepped up and volunteered by providing skilled labor and other contributions to the flood relief effort.
Being able to partner with the flood disaster case workers has given local churches an easier way to volunteer in their own community, Vokal said. Trinity Lutheran used to travel outside of Midland for mission trips, but has since been doing more local volunteer work.
“Other churches are seeing they can do things in the community to help,” Vokal said. “We will be done here shortly, but the help and generosity of our community is going to continue.”
Questions for Vokal and Wortley can be directed to the disaster case managers at 989-486-8784.