VISTAs Do the Dirty Work for Flood Recovery 

Release Date: September 3, 2008
Release Number: 1763-180

» More Information on Iowa Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding

DES MOINES, Iowa -- On an August afternoon in a Cedar Rapids neighborhood scene of ruin and desolation, four young people give their all to the hard labor of mucking.

They are here because two months ago when they saw the flooding on TV, they wanted to help.

They joined AmeriCorps VISTA to do this dusty, dangerous, sometimes disgusting, but very necessary work. Thanks in part to funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Americorps VISTA's parent organization, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), nearly 100 VISTA summer associates came to Iowa for two months to help with flood recovery. Thirty of the Vistas will remain in the community for a year to help with flood recovery and reducing poverty. Over the summer, most of the VISTAs' work has involved "mucking."

"Muck is debris and other waste materials that get into the basement and first floor of a house after a flood, and mucking is cleaning it out," said Ryan O'Donnell who came to Iowa from Pittsburgh.

"You've got dirty water that's been sitting in a basement for two months, mixing up with all the good stuff, baking in the heat. Sometimes the smell is overpowering," said co-worker Phillip Cooke from Philadelphia.

Like the others, Amy Kellet, of Salem, N.H., was moved by the plight of Iowans: "I saw the floods on CNN like everybody else and decided I wanted to help."

This is not the first community service work for Brittany Zemlick from San Diego. But the two months she will spend in Iowa as a VISTA worker is a lot longer than the week she spent her senior year of college helping out with Hurricane Katrina recovery.

Zemlick finds her labor inherently rewarding: "If we're mucking out a house that's going to be rebuilt, it's a good feeling to get in there and get dirty and go home feeling good."

The crew is not just cleaning out the muck. They must tear out any walls touched by flood water and clear the house down to the studs before rebuilding can start.

The hardest part, said O'Donnell, is the danger.  "I had a natural gas propane line explode in my face-not fire, but gas."

Nevertheless, O'Donnell is glad to be in Iowa. It's a great job, he said, "if you want to find out what you're made of and do some hard work and help people in a real way."

New relationships are another reward of working for VISTA. "One of the best parts is that you meet people of all walks of life that I normally would not have met," Zemlick said. "You know really good people."

VISTAs have provided more than 12,000 hours of flood recovery labor since July 2, 2008, valued at more than $234,000, according to Vicki Hover-Williamson, Iowa State Director, Corporation for National and Community Service
 
AmeriCorps VISTA provides housing and a small living allowance to the volunteers, as well as a modest amount for school tuition or a cash award at the end of service. To learn more about the work of the volunteers in Iowa and to read a blog by one of them, go to www.vistacorridorrecovery.org.      

FEMA coordinates the federal government's role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 09-Sep-2008 14:50:02