Morningside group assists flood cleanup
By Joanne Fox, Journal staff writer | Posted: Monday, August 04, 2008
Mary Kovarna, associate professor of nursing and chair of the nursing department at Morningside College, examines some of the items collected from a house damaged by flood waters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In the background are other volunteers, from left, Mary Krejci and Terry Curry and Morningside College junior Andy Cunningham of Durant, Iowa. (Submitted photo)
Depending on how you punctuate it, "doobie, doobie, doo" is not just a Frank Sinatra mantra.
It's the slogan of a dozen Morningside College students and staff who traveled to Cedar Rapids to help in recovery efforts that have been underway since floodwaters swept through the city last month.
Led by the Rev. Kathy Olson, Morningside chaplain and director of church relations, the Morningside group left for Cedar Rapids on July 27 and spent several days assisting in flood cleanup.
"I've been talking a lot lately to a friend of mine who volunteered in Nigeria and I wondered if we were making a drop in the bucket," Olson said of the group's relief efforts. "We decided with a lot of drops in the bucket, eventually it does get full."
The Frank Sinatra hook from "Strangers in the Night," is also an aspect of Olson's personal philosophy: "Do. Be. Do. Be. Do." It's an aspect she's seen in the volunteers on the trip.
Matt Kerr, a Morningside senior majoring in biology who has family in Cedar Rapids, volunteered because, "I just know it was needed."
"The biggest surprise for me was the devastation," said the resident of Sigourney, Iowa. "Homes were moved completely off of foundations in some cases."
Olson agreed, expressing her amazement at how strong the current of the water must have been. In one home, a refrigerator was discovered on top of a kitchen sink.
Mary Krejci, assistant to the vice president of enrollment at Morningside whose husband has ties to that area, was also astonished at the vast number of houses that were clearly uninhabitable.
"I was a resident of the Perry Creek area in 1990 and thought I knew what to expect with a flood," she explained. "But I was appalled at how many homes were destroyed."
Andy Heiser, executive director of information services at Morningside, was concerned that the recovery efforts seemed to be progressing so slowly.
"There were numerous houses that people clearly had not even set foot in," he said. "It was cause for despair and that's why I think I just dove in and cleaned things up the best I could."
Each home had different needs, but in essence, the volunteers were there to take items out of the house that were destroyed and pile debris in dumpsters on the curbs for later collection, Olson said.
"Throwing away personal belongings like photo albums was tough," Kerr, 20, acknowledged. "But you kept a positive attitude knowing you were helping someone because it might have been too hard for them to do that themselves."
The Morningside group worked through the Volunteers in Mission program of the United Methodist Committee on Relief for the trip. The group also partnered with another team comprised of volunteers from St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Cherokee, Iowa.
"I think it's to their credit that our students are willing to take time from their summer break to help Cedar Rapids residents still struggling to recover from the effects of the flood," Olson said.
Morningside College students and staff have a recent tradition of assisting in recovery and rebuilding efforts after natural disasters. Morningside groups have made four trips to work in hurricane-damaged areas along the Gulf Coast.
In the spring of 2006, a Morningside group helped with cleanup and reconstruction efforts in Picayune, Miss., which was devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That trip was followed by other mission efforts in Lake Charles, La., during the spring of 2007 and in Beaumont, Texas, during Christmas 2007. The most recent trip was in March to the New Orleans area to repair or rebuild homes.
"I did not expect devastation in Cedar Rapids to be like New Orleans," Olson said. "But there's as much destruction as we saw in the Gulf Coast."
It's the slogan of a dozen Morningside College students and staff who traveled to Cedar Rapids to help in recovery efforts that have been underway since floodwaters swept through the city last month.
Led by the Rev. Kathy Olson, Morningside chaplain and director of church relations, the Morningside group left for Cedar Rapids on July 27 and spent several days assisting in flood cleanup.
"I've been talking a lot lately to a friend of mine who volunteered in Nigeria and I wondered if we were making a drop in the bucket," Olson said of the group's relief efforts. "We decided with a lot of drops in the bucket, eventually it does get full."
The Frank Sinatra hook from "Strangers in the Night," is also an aspect of Olson's personal philosophy: "Do. Be. Do. Be. Do." It's an aspect she's seen in the volunteers on the trip.
Matt Kerr, a Morningside senior majoring in biology who has family in Cedar Rapids, volunteered because, "I just know it was needed."
"The biggest surprise for me was the devastation," said the resident of Sigourney, Iowa. "Homes were moved completely off of foundations in some cases."
Olson agreed, expressing her amazement at how strong the current of the water must have been. In one home, a refrigerator was discovered on top of a kitchen sink.
Mary Krejci, assistant to the vice president of enrollment at Morningside whose husband has ties to that area, was also astonished at the vast number of houses that were clearly uninhabitable.
"I was a resident of the Perry Creek area in 1990 and thought I knew what to expect with a flood," she explained. "But I was appalled at how many homes were destroyed."
Andy Heiser, executive director of information services at Morningside, was concerned that the recovery efforts seemed to be progressing so slowly.
"There were numerous houses that people clearly had not even set foot in," he said. "It was cause for despair and that's why I think I just dove in and cleaned things up the best I could."
Each home had different needs, but in essence, the volunteers were there to take items out of the house that were destroyed and pile debris in dumpsters on the curbs for later collection, Olson said.
"Throwing away personal belongings like photo albums was tough," Kerr, 20, acknowledged. "But you kept a positive attitude knowing you were helping someone because it might have been too hard for them to do that themselves."
The Morningside group worked through the Volunteers in Mission program of the United Methodist Committee on Relief for the trip. The group also partnered with another team comprised of volunteers from St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Cherokee, Iowa.
"I think it's to their credit that our students are willing to take time from their summer break to help Cedar Rapids residents still struggling to recover from the effects of the flood," Olson said.
Morningside College students and staff have a recent tradition of assisting in recovery and rebuilding efforts after natural disasters. Morningside groups have made four trips to work in hurricane-damaged areas along the Gulf Coast.
In the spring of 2006, a Morningside group helped with cleanup and reconstruction efforts in Picayune, Miss., which was devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That trip was followed by other mission efforts in Lake Charles, La., during the spring of 2007 and in Beaumont, Texas, during Christmas 2007. The most recent trip was in March to the New Orleans area to repair or rebuild homes.
"I did not expect devastation in Cedar Rapids to be like New Orleans," Olson said. "But there's as much destruction as we saw in the Gulf Coast."
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