We joined 8 other NOMADS in Conway, Arkansas to work on Disater Recovery as a result of an EFT 4 tornadoes last April. The team is from the left, Norman, Chic, Jim, Bob, Linda, Sue, Jodi, Stel, Dan and Virgie.
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We began at the Habitat for Humanity warehouse which serves as the base for all the local recovery efforts. There is a huge consortium of churches contributing to the funding for this recovery effort.
There are supplies stored here but also Habitat Restore provides resources for others in need.
We were picking up supplies for our first job. The young people here are from New York and are here on their spring break to help those in need and us too. They proceeded to load our trailer without even being asked. How special.
The team began these decks last week and we arrived as a group to try to finish as much as we could. Stel and Sue learned how to layout stair stringers and are now attempting to install them on the rear deck.
Chic and Jim are installing ballisters on the front deck.
Here, Virgie and Bob are adding deck boards to the steps.
Norman is helping Chic create an assembly line to predrill the ballisters.
"It takes a team" .... (Linda, Virgie, Stel, Sue)
Somehow we managed to get almost everyone working on the same deck.
Chic now teaching Linda and Sue how to attach the ballisters
Norman and Bob discussing how to fix a flaw in the ramp.
Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, Jodi has been calling homeowners who had been helped by the Disaster Recovery effort previously to determine if they were satisfied or if they had additional needs that had not been met. The Disaster Coordinator was thrilled to have Jodi doing this which relieved her of a huge project. Jodi has spent almost all of her time in Conway in the phone with these folks. What a blessing to the project.
Next two days, two more decks, front......
and back.
The kids from New York joined us at this house and planted these replacement trees for the homeowner.
The homeowner and her babies.
At the end of the week, Bob, Linda and Norman left the project. After a long weekend, we are making the finishing touches so we could.....
present the owners (and their furry children) with a Bible signed by all the NOMADS.
Later, back at the warehouse, we were asked to "fix" previous volunteer painting work and repaint all the trim. This was a group project which took 2 days. Here, Chic, Virgie and Sue are sanding off or scraping off previous paint flaws.
Stel repainting and
Jodi taking a break from phones to help with the painting
and Jim painting as well.
The finished product production line.
Dan building a counter to be used for check out at Habitat Restore.
Next day, followup repairs (Jodi's calls make us work) as Jim and Chic set out to fix the screening on this porch.
A hard working pair to put the screens back in order.
Same house, the trim on this window was "gone with the wind" but had not been a priority previously.
So Sue and Stel set out to replace the trim with Jim providing encouragement.
And the finished product looks pretty good if we do say so ourselves.
Last night there were several tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas but we were spared here in Conway. We did have a lot of rain all night and again this AM so it's off to the warehouse to paint doors to be used on the house we are assigned to finish next week. They are prehung so the first order is to dismantle the doors.
Sue and Chic painted the jambs.
Jim, Virgie and Stel painted the doors.
Everyone got involved in the reassembly including Stel, Dan, Sue, Virgie
and Jim and Chic.
After cleanup, it's time for a much deserved weekend off. One more week to go.
