Caring for Flood Victims
By Laura Reinhardt

Floodwaters were still subsiding across Washington State when a truck convoy loaded with supplies and volunteers from World Vision’s facilities in Fife headed south to Centralia, a region hard-hit by January’s relentless rains and melting snowpack.   

Volunteers quickly unloaded the trucks, filling up the warehouse space of the nonprofit Help 4 Hard Times.

“Wow! Holy moly! This is awesome!” says Anna Brown, the organization’s director, as she surveys the newly arrived goods stocked in the warehouse. Later, overcome with emotion, she begins to cry.

“Forty-eight hours ago, I didn’t have anything in this building. I didn’t even have this building,” Anna says. Now she has personal hygiene items, blankets, pillows, and cleaning supplies to share.

Help 4 Hard Times is no stranger to caring for those whose lives are uprooted by floods. Founded as a youth ministry, the group’s mission expanded in the aftermath of the 2007 floods. Responding to overwhelming needs in 2007, Anna said “we had to scramble for everything. This time the Lord is doing this.”

“This” includes a brand new warehouse filled with supplies for disaster victims. Rev. Reynaldo Fisher of New Beginning Outreach Ministry—a World Vision partner—found the warehouse for Help 4 Hard Times. He then introduced Anna to World Vision, who delivered the supplies. Reynaldo says, “The blankets and the clothing and the toiletries—all those will be able to go toward those who are without. The children. That will make it more comfortable for them.”

The ministry is a godsend for people like 29-year-old Sandy Santos, a single mother of two elementary-age children. The family found themselves homeless following the latest floods, and had nowhere to turn. Help 4 Hard Times provides a room at a local motel for a couple of nights.                                                 

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Just before the floods, Sandy and her children moved into the Chehalis Avenue Apartments in Centralia. They were seeking to escape what she describes as a “very unhealthy” living situation. On a Sunday, Sandy and her children moved into their new apartment. She was going to sign the lease that week, but on Wednesday the floods forced the family to flee. Because Sandy had not yet signed the lease, she could not give proof of address so could not get flood assistance. She and her children were suddenly lost in bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, Sandy also has been unable to work since the beginning of December due to her 11-year-old son’s multiple health issues, which include seizures and depression.  

At Help 4 Hard Times Sandy at last finds the help she and her children need. As staff members pray with her, she cries. “You guys are actually the first to even offer to help us,” Sandy said. “I’ve been calling and calling.”  

The staff packs up boxes of the World Vision supplies for the family. They receive pillows, cleaning supplies, and a box of toiletries. Sandy looks at a box filled with several bottles of laundry detergent. “Are those all for me?” she asks incredulously.  
She looks through the box filled with personal hygiene items. “These are just very, very helpful. Some people don’t really realize what these mean to people. Some people have the opportunity to take things like these for granted. But it’s a gift. Everybody needs it sometimes.”

She laughs, saying that doing laundry is probably one of her biggest needs after getting a place to spend the night. The family climbs into their car stuffed with their remaining belongings—and the  additional supplies that will help get them through this tough time.

At the motel, Sandy meets Anna. Sandy’s tears come again as the two women embrace. Anna says that her ministry was just wrapping up serving the flood victims from 2007. Now they have many more people like Sandy they need to serve.

“We’re not through flood season yet either,” Anna says. “So we don’t know that this may not happen again in two more weeks, and then again in another month. Then again in another three months, as our snowpack kind of fluctuates.”

But this time the organization is more prepared. Anna says they have not had to struggle to find supplies as much this year. “God has been connecting the dots for the last 48 hours and I’m standing here with my mouth hanging open going, ‘Go God!’” Now with a partnership with World Vision, as one of the connected dots, this small organization is more ready than ever to serve the needs of the flood victims in their community.

Donate to help children and families overcome by situational poverty.