Give Help & Hope to People in Need! Vincentians are working with families who have lost their homes to the Middletown Valley and other California wildfires. There are three Councils working with the survivors. SVdP volunteers have met with more than 300 families in just four days at the Disaster Assistance Center and Conferences are also seeing families who cannot make it to the Assistance Center. Vincentians are qualifying families for the House in a Box® program at the Assistance Center.

SVdP’s House in a Box® program helps to restore lives one house at a time. This program was implemented to supply disaster survivors with critical items to furnish an entire home from the kitchen to the bathroom to the bedroom, including furniture, dishes, towels, utensils and bed linens.

The SVdPUSA Disaster Services Division is helping the Western Region and the Councils in the disaster zone with technical support, communications and disaster recovery training. The DSD also is serving as a liaison with governmental entities.

From a coordination level, the DSD is working with the National American Red Cross and FEMA headquarters to ensure that SVdP only fills unmet needs in this community. At this point, SVdP is focusing its efforts on Middletown Valley Fires, as this was an affordable housing community and has greater challenges to recover. Many of the hardest hit areas were areas that had mainly lower income renters.

The damage from these wildfires has been severe. The Valley Fire has killed four people, injured four firefighters, destroyed nearly 2,000 homes and structures, and displaced more than 1,200 people.

For a California statewide fire map, click:
http://www.fire.ca.gov/general/firemaps.php

In addition to responding to the California wildfires, the DSD is actively supporting disaster relief/recovery operations in many areas of the country including:

• The Midwest Region with flood recovery in Dewitt, Neb. and Lusk, Wyo.
• The South Central Region with tornado recovery in Sand Springs, Okla. and House in a Box® for the Texas Dioceses of Tyler and Houston.
• The North Central Region where the Illinois Diocese of Joliet is requesting the House in a Box® program for the families who were impacted by the spring and summer floods.

Locations where the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services Division has provided Rapid Response Disaster Grants and/or technical support as a result of the 2015 spring, summer and fall floods, tornadoes and wildfires.

Please make a donation to the National Council’s National Domestic Disaster Relief Fund. Your contribution will help change lives, rebuild homes, provide shelter and emergency daily-living supplies and most importantly, restore hope to those in need!

To donate, visit the National Council’s secure donation page and Donate Now.

Or, if you prefer, you can mail a check to:

National Council of the United States
Society of St. Vincent de Paul
58 Progress Parkway
Maryland Heights, MO 63043
(Be sure to write “Domestic Disaster Relief Fund” in the memo field)

If you have questions about this appeal, contact:
Steve Martinez
Chief Development Officer
314-576-3993 ext.213
smartinez@svdpusa.org