TEXAS HURRICANE UPDATE (JUNE 2018) DISASTER PROFILE Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017, near Rockport, TX as a category 4 Hurricane with a record 52" of rain and 130-mph winds. It led 41 counties in Southeast Texas to be designated as federal disaster areas; one third of Houston was completely flooded. An estimated 136,000 homes were damaged in Harris County (Houston) alone. Additionally, the Coastal Bend region was hit especially hard, with an estimated 39,927 damaged structures totaling $4.5 billion. Damage in this region was even more varied than in Houston - not only were homes affected by storm surge and rising waters, but the high speed winds damaged many trees and roofs. This caused top-down water damage, debris and tree hazards, and led to long-term struggles to keep homes dry. RESPONSE PHASE Thanks to critical support from donors, partners, and volunteers from around the world, All Hands and Hearts – Smart Response was able to complete an impactful 16 and 18-week programs across the Coastal Bend and Harris County regions, respectively. Our teams responded to the outcry for help with gutting and mold sanitizing homes. Between the two programs we were able to complete 310 muck/gut jobs and 103 sanitation jobs, facilitating 2,074 volunteers and providing assistance to 1374 people. Teams were also able to remove trees from 77 sites, and debris from 105 sites in the Coastal Bend region. OUR CURRENT ACTIVITIES (RECOVERY PHASE) As we continue response work (mucking, gutting and sanitizing homes), we are also rebuilding homes in northeast Houston and the Coastal Bend. In this phase, we complete ~4 home rebuilds/month. Volunteers travel to job sites each morning at 7AM and return each evening to our base for a nightly meeting recapping the day. With ~50 volunteers on base at one time, over 39 nationalities have been represented since January. Thanks to support from our partners at TUMI, we are also working on our first ever domestic school rebuild at the Rhodes Performing Arts School. We made a 2-year commitment to help Texas recover and our work is just beginning.
The Rhodes School is a public charter school located in NE Houston serving low-income, at-risk students. Serving 1100 students from pre-K to 8th grade across all campuses, the school incorporates music and arts into its daily curriculum. Our teams are hard at work rebuilding classrooms and handicapped ramps.
Homeowner Linda O’Neil with the team of volunteers who helped rebuild her home. “"I just felt like all of them were my kids, and of course the older people that were here were just wonderful people. I just can't explain how they... they meant so much to me, it was unreal." Learn more about Linda’s story here.
OUR IMPACT (JANUARY-MAY)
3,843
PEOPLE ASSISTED
964
2,996
JOBS COMPLETED
VOLUNTEERS
21,036
VOLUNTEER DAYS
Homeowner Highlight Homeowner Audrey Davis is one of our most active beneficiaries, helping the team to rebuild her home throughout the entire process. Audrey recently received furniture for her completed home thanks to our national partner Good360. Hear more of Audrey’s story here.
OUR VOLUNTEERS “Fantastic experience. I would not have been able to do this type of work by myself. I wanted to help out after Harvey and AHAH is the perfect way for someone without disaster experience to do so. The staff is organized, welcoming and helpful. The set supervisors are knowledgeable, patient, and forgiving of my mistakes. I loved talking with the volunteers as well, hearing stories and passions!” “My experience was amazing. I am so touched and happy to see young people giving back [...] They had a lot of patience with the volunteers and instructed us with care and love. The connection that they had with the home owners was something that I admired. This organization really pays attention not only to the people that it is helping but also every member that gets involved with it.”
OUR MISSION To effectively and efficiently address the immediate and long-term needs of communities impacted by natural disasters. By listening to local people, and deploying a unique model of engaging volunteers to enable direct impact, we rebuild safe, resilient schools, homes and other community infrastructure.
OUR PARTNERS
4 YEARS IN A ROW! Only 13% of charities have received at least 4 consecutive 4-star ratings. This means All Hands and Hearts outperforms most of the other 1.5 million charities in America in operational and financial efficiency.
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For additional information: Rebecca Connelly, Partnership Manager rebecca@allhandsandhearts.org or (508) 965-0787 www.allhandsandhearts.org