Et cetera : NCCC Cedar 4 aids community of Brainerd after wind storm damage

By Calen Campbell

The Cedar 4 team of AmeriCorps NCCC’s Class XXI headed into their fifth week of service, only this time to respond to a disaster affecting the community of Brainerd, Minn., after devastating straight line winds ravaged through the town. The team served alongside with the Nechama Jewish Response to Disaster, a volunteer organization that provides natural disaster preparedness, response, and recovery services nationwide. Their service work involved a variety of tasks such as lopping branches to make them easier to manage, chain sawing fallen trees, removing fallen debris and hard raking excess debris.

The team explored the community by travelling to different areas affected by the straight line winds, which boasted speeds of 80 to 100 miles per hour, to assist homeowners. Meteorologists have compared the wind’s force to be similar to a category 2 hurricane. The Supercell storm where the straight line winds originated from started on July 12, 2015. The winds stretched the distance of 8 miles with a width of 3 miles. Surprisingly, the storm went for 240 miles. The aftermath of the storm left many residents of Brainerd with power outages, downed trees, crushed sheds and campers, evacuations and shutdowns of the local resorts for cleanups. Many of the residents and volunteers that helped with the cleanup stated that it was one of the worst storms they’ve seen in over 30 years.

“It’s a humbling experience to help those affected by the storm restore their lives. For the projects we have been involved with up to this point, we don’t really get the opportunity to witness the direct impact of our efforts, so it’s exciting to see the difference we can make after we clear and remove the brush when we arrive at a worksite that has so much damage. It’s very fulfilling to say the least.” says Cedar 4 member Jaime.

The team has accomplished many goals serving together with Nechama Jewish Response to Disaster and other volunteers from the community. Together, they have been able to improve the lives of many individuals over the course of a few days. Fallen trees and branches were cut with chain saws, loppers and hand saws into smaller pieces in order to make moving them out of the way more manageable. Hard rakes were then used to clean up the remainder of the excess debris left behind. These efforts have made it more manageable for homeowners to manage the remainder of the work themselves. The clearing of the debris also prevented potential fire hazards in the event that the leaves stayed and dried up. In addition, residents benefited from keeping smaller logs to use for fires. Through their efforts, members assisted elderly residents that may not have the ability to remove the debris and residents that can’t afford the costs of having fallen trees removed. The community was truly appreciative of the efforts made to bring a sense of normalcy back into their lives.

The mission of Nechama is to be dedicated to helping families, and communities prepare for, clean up and recover from natural disasters. Based in the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Nechama has deployed thousands of volunteers to help communities clean up after floods, tornados and other natural disasters. The Hebrew word for comfort and pronounced “Na-Ha-Ma”, they offer help to all communities regardless of religious affiliation.