August 19, 2020
by Kalie Saunders, IRR program director
Its been a very long couple of days and the team is tired, but we are so proud of them! Its only day 2 and the teams have helped removed literal tons of debris!! Great work everyone!
The team helped clean up eight different sites in Belle Plaine, Chelsea and Luzerne, Iowa.
August 18, 2020
by Kalie Saunders, IRR program director
After setting up base at a local church in Belle Plaine, our whole group set to work helping a local farmer. Mr. Charles, a farmer in his 80s, lost four of his five outbuildings due to the derecho that took place last week. Upon our arrival, Mr. Charles was unsure of our motives, and as we worked he kept asking us how much we were going to charge him. Price gouging is a common occurrence after disasters and some residents of Belle Plaine told us they were quoted upwards of $20,000 to have their trees removed, so we understand why Mr. Charles was skeptical. However, after lots of reassurance, hard work, swapping stories, and sharing our work snacks with him, he understood we just wanted to help. We could tell he was re-energized by our fast and hard-working group of responders and soon he was out working alongside us and we were clearing debris together. Our Operations Section Chief, Ryan Haakenson, IRR senior and fellow Iowan, asked Mr. Charles how he was feeling at the end of our workday. Mr. Charles replied by expressing his relief and saying, “I’ve lived here my whole life and it’s finally starting to feel like home again.” It’s an honor to get to work with people like Mr. Charles and to support this incredible and resilient community of Belle Plaine, Iowa.August 17, 2020
A team of Union College international rescue and relief students and faculty left early this morning to spend a week helping the residents of Belle Plaine after an unusual windstorm caused extensive damage in the small eastern Iowa town.
The derecho started in Nebraska and packed 100 mph winds as it swept across Iowa, and impacted several other states last Monday, August 10.
The wind left the little town of Belle Plaine, located roughly halfway between Marshalltown and Cedar Rapids, with extensive damage and no power. The mayor declared a state of emergency and over the weekend asked Union’s IRR program to come help with the cleanup through a connection with Gideon Rescue, a relief organization started by Union IRR graduate Brock Mayer.
“What we have been told so far is that we will be doing a lot of tree removal,” said Andrew Saunders, the IRR faculty who leads the team along with his wife, IRR Program Director Kalie Saunders. “Most of the streets are clear, but the parks and private property are still covered with debris.”
The 23 students, two faculty and one graduate will work until next Sunday helping residents reclaim their devastated town—part of a much larger cleanup effort across Eastern Iowa from a storm that state and local officials say is the worst in the area’s history.
“This is a disaster that we have never seen before. It is something that was essentially like a hurricane coming through the Midwest without advance notice,” said U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat who represents Cedar Rapids in Congress as reported by USA Today.
The team will take extra precautions to protect against COVID-19 transmission including wearing masks in vehicles, in buildings and any time they can’t physically distance from others. According to Saunders, IRR students already undergo extensive safety training for working in emergency situations and will use the appropriate protective equipment and practices to protect themselves throughout the trip. Additionally, each student will receive a COVID-19 test upon returning to campus to ensure they did not contract the virus on their trip.
Union’s international rescue and relief program is a unique bachelor’s degree designed to prepare students for careers in public safety, emergency management, and community development. In addition to earning an emergency medical technician and several FEMA certifications, students spend five weeks in Colorado training in wilderness survival and rescue, and a whole semester in a developing nation studying global medicine and running health clinics in underserved areas.
The program regularly responds to disaster in the United States and around the world—including the 2019 Nebraska flooding, Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Typhoon Adai in Malawi, and many more. If you’d like to support their disaster relief efforts, please use the giving form below.
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