CERG

To learn more about the current status of the clean up work, read this Huffington Post Article: 6 Months After Sandy, Thousands Remain Homeless.

Hurricane Sandy caused unprecedented and wide spread devastation along the Mid Atlantic coast in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and as far as eastern Ohio in early November. Even though the TV cameras have left, many people are still without permanent housing and are still dealing with devastating property losses. Several of our Central East Regional Group churches are still working to clean up affected neighbourhoods that suffered from wind and water damage. It looks like this will be the costliest disaster in American history and it is estimated that it will take an additional 4 or 5 more years to restore the neighbourhoods and repair the damage.

To aid our UU congregations, members and their neighbourhoods affected by this tragedy, the CERG leadership set up the CERG UU Disaster Relief Fund to collect donations to assist with storm damage clean up and rebuilding and renewal efforts. We are working with the congregations affected to channel the funds to where they make the most positive impact in people's lives. We were recently given a grant by the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, NY, to help create a part-time Disaster Response Coordinator position that will facilitate the training and deployment of volunteer work crews in the affected area.

Initial efforts provided for emergency support following the storm. Now, additional funds are needed to assist congregations, their members and neighbours in on-going clean up, restoration and rebuilding when insurance is not adequate to cover the repairs. After all needs are met, if there are funds left over, it will be maintained for future CERG regional relief efforts.

The funds collected have and continue to make a real, concrete difference in people's lives. The needs are still great and efforts to help will be required for a long time. We recall that clean up from Hurricane Andrew in Florida took months in south Florida. Many have given time and money for the New Orleans and Gulf Coast recovery and it is taking years to bring things to anywhere near normal again. When it comes to Hurricane Sandy renewal and restoration, we are in this for the long haul.

We are asking all congregations to please take up a collection earmarked for the CERG UU Disaster Relief Fund. Checks can be made to CERG with Disaster Relief Fund in the memo line. All contributions are to be sent to:
CERG-UUA
100 W. 10^th Street, Suite 1008
Wilmington, DE, 19801

People can also donate on-line using PayPal at the link below. We ask that you increase your donation to cover the 3% processing fee that we pay for each transaction.