When Biloxi blues came to Vernonia

By Deborah Moon

article created on:

A year after taking a group to help Biloxi, Miss., recover from Hurricane Katrina, Rabbi Daniel Isaak took about 50 volunteers to Vernonia to help residents of that Oregon town dig out from December’s floods.

“These were similar kinds of things that needed to be done, but this was a much smaller town,” said Isaak.

On Feb. 3, about 50 volunteers from Isaak’s Congregation Neveh Shalom and B’nai B’rith Youth Organization carpooled to Vernonia for a day of hard work.

Volunteers were divided into about eight groups who spent the day tearing out floors and chimneys, digging dirt out of crawl spaces, cleaning and preparing a senior center for painting, moving flood-damaged items to where they could be sorted, entering data on computers and doing general clean up on flood-damaged homes.

According to a Feb. 7 article in The Oregonian, about 800 homes were damaged in Columbia County during December’s floods. About 260 of those homes were in Vernonia. The town’s infrastructure suffered $144,000 in damages and the town’s schools were all damaged in the floods. The high school remains closed with students attending classes in portable trailers.

Columbia County Flood Relief Coordinator Rob Wilson said that it will be many months before everyone is back in their homes. Though volunteers are helping with cleanup, he said many homeowners are awaiting funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or their insurance companies before they can rebuild.

At least one homeowner wasn’t waiting to start rebuilding, said Isaak.

“I was with a group removing flooring,” he said. “While we were pulling up the floor on one side of the house, the owner, with one of our people helping, was in the bedroom laying new flooring. The house was pulled apart and put back together at the same time.”

Isaak said he also joined a group of BBYO teens who spent the morning “house diving,” going into the crawl space to remove the muck washed under the home by the floodwaters.

Wilson said that job is “a young folks job. … teenagers love to do that.”

Isaak said the owner, Bill Sword, showed the teens a picture of his family on the property in 1891 and told them about all the bridges his family had built to get to their home. Sword built the most recent bridge in 1994 when he was 64. Sword was so grateful for the teens’ work that he gave Isaak a check for $175, which Isaak passed on to BBYO after telling Sword, “That’s not why we came.”

Another group of BBYOers worked at the senior center cleaning up, tearing out construction and taping off windows and lights in preparation for painting and construction.

“It was fun, dirty and rewarding,” said Morriah Kaplan, who with Alex Menashe organized BBYO’s participation in the event. “Since Alex and I are in charge of community service and social action for the BBYO region, we try to make people realize that community servies can actually be a lot of fun, especially with friends. This is the first citywide community service event that BBYO has done. … It was a really cool sense of community that we were able to bring to Vernonia.”

“My group had a fantastic time,” said Menashe. “We competed to see who could take out the most walls/ceiling boards. At the end when the homeowner thanked us, I really felt the impact we had when I saw her smile as she talked about how much of a help we were.”

Many members of Neveh Shalom brought young family members to help out. Lesley and Michael Alter brought Matan, 10, and Zevi, 7, while their friend Cheryl Lawrence brought Mason, 7 and Daniel, 9. The youths pulled nails out of the floorboards at the senior center and cleaned up the parking lot, while their moms “scrubbed the muck off the senior center interior walls and doors” and Michael Alter taped edges in preparation for painting.

Linda (Matah Esther) Brownstein, who already had volunteered individually in Vernonia three or four times, brought her children Natan, 18, and Lieba and Ilan, 14. The Brownsteins went to the home of Mayor Sally Harrison to pull nails out of subflooring, wash studs and pull out carpet. Brownstein, who taught in Vernonia many years ago, said she was surprised when her old friend asked for their help.

“Because she is the mayor, she is always taking care of others and making sure they have what they need, so it was very unusual to ask for herself,” said Brownstein.

“We all were exhausted, but it was great,” she said. “We felt good helping.”

Al Weingard said the woman his group helped was also very grateful. Weingard, Larry Huppin and four teens helped the woman move her belongings from a storage area that had been flooded to a new storage facility.

“She will be spending the next few months sorting through her stuff and trying to figure out what she can salvage,” Weingard said. “She was grateful for that opportunity.”

Isaak said he plans to arrange similar volunteer efforts as needs arise in the future.

“I think everybody went away feeling as if we accomplished a great deal,” said Isaak.

While Wilson said clean up efforts are now on hold while the community braces for more potential flooding from snowmelt, those who would like to volunteer when efforts resume may call him at 503-791-9629.