11/18 John Perry, Mayor of Everson: Flood Update
Flood Update 11/18/21
Today was productive in many ways. As a team we were able to take some time to sit down and evaluate where we were at, and what our next steps are. Multiple organizations are working together to develop a central hub for serving the needs of the victims of the flood. Leaders from Lynden, Everson, Sumas , Nooksack, the Lynden Chamber of Commerce, Manna Insurance, NCCTK, Valley Church, Sumas AC Church and several other churches met today to come up with a plan to serve the needs of everyone affected. We’ve had meetings with several organizations that are preparing for deployment to our area. Below is the list of things that we were working on today and will be continuing to work on.
• We’re launching a website that will have all the information needed for those affected by the flood. This will include who to contact for services and links to organizations that can provide additional services. This should be active sometime tomorrow.
• Team Rubicon met with Sumas, Nooksack and Everson to assess the extent of the damage and determine the size of team to send to our community. Team Rubicon is a volunteer organization made up of mostly Veterans and First Responders who are trained in disaster cleanup and management. They will help prepare your homes to be rebuilt and will work with each property owner to get as much work done as possible. We could see them as soon as Sunday.
• We’re working with the Salvation Army to set up a Food Truck at Nooksack Middle School. More details to come on that.
• BP sent their Crisis Team out today to deliver PPE and cleanup supplies and equipment. Tomorrow they are sending out a team to begin cleanup and preparation for our community cleanup day on Saturday.
• The Fema Community Damage Assessment forms are almost complete. The volunteers from the Nooksack Valley School District have done an amazing job. In less than two days they have been to over 600 homes to talk with people and document the damage. This information is vital in our efforts to secure funding from the Federal Government to assist those with and without flood insurance.
• Planning continues on long range housing situations, food services to those in need and many other things. This is a lot to organize in a short period of time, but there are some really good people throughout the county working on this full time.
Like last night, I’m sure I’ve missed a few important things that people are doing, but trust that we are trying and people have dropped everything to help our community. The outpouring of support, donations, and work has been amazing. Everyday I talk with my staff at City Hall in awe of the way the community has come together to help their neighbors. Be proud of yourselves and keep it up. This is not a short term problem to solve. We are going to be dealing with this for a while. Your support and efforts are noticed, appreciated and we couldn’t do this without you. Thank you for everything.
John
