Over spring break, BonaResponds returned to the Wilmington, North Carolina area to help with furthering recovery efforts from hurricane Florence.
Hurricane Florence struck the Carolinas on Sept. 10, 2018. The hurricane quickly downgraded but then stalled in place and dropped up to three feet of rain in places. The storm caused rivers to flood and in some places, the water was over 10 feet high.
Over fall break, BonaResponds went to Wilmington and worked primarily in Burgah, North Carolina, about 20 miles outside of Wilmington. The work was almost exclusively gutting and cleaning up after the flooding rains closer to Wilmington. Only about 16 volunteers were on that trip, but they met many alumni and others in the North Carolina area who came out to help.
On the spring break trip, approximately 40 volunteers went. They stayed at St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington and worked with a group of North Carolina Baptist Disaster volunteers headquartered at the Seagate Baptist Church.
“It is more evidence that Bonaventure is everywhere. The reason we stayed there in the first place is that Kathy Flattery is a Bonaventure alum we worked with after Hurricane Sandy in Breezy Point. Her husband is the rector of St. James. Immediately after the storm, they offered us their church for housing,” said Greg Faughnan, SBU alum and BonaResponds advisory board member who was on the fall break trip.
On the trip, BonaResponds worked on several homes that had flooded to the second floor and to make matters worse, the water sat there for many days. This trip was much more rebuilding. Work included hanging insulation, putting in drywall, installing floors and, in some cases, even moving furniture.
“I really liked both trips, but the first trip was much dirtier; we would return covered in mud every day. The work tended to be more physically grueling,” Nate O’Lay, who was on both trips added. “On this trip, we did more inside work. We helped a hoarder and installed a couple of floors, and fixed a shed that had been blown apart. We even had a retired electrician from Texas and a professional handyman from the local Olean [area]. They were great and increased the types of jobs we could tackle.”
The mix of volunteers was about two-thirds students with the remainder being alumni and community members, along with two faculty members, Mahar and Ted Georgian, a professor of biology.
Maggie Finley, the student leader and organizer of the trip, agreed. “I organized the trip, collected all the forms and I cannot tell you the breakdown of females and males. It is just not something we even track.”
When asked how the people they helped felt, BonaResponds members offered quotes from those helped.
The storm was six months ago, and we just moved back in thanks to the St. Bonaventure crew,” Roy Fos said. “When they came, I was a little hesitant about even asking for help, but they have some crazy motto like “better, not perfect.”
Volunteer Kaitlin Sinclair remembered it this way, “On Thursday before you all came down, I prayed for help. I prayed that angels would be sent to help. You came a few days later. You all are my angels.”
The group is considering a return trip in May immediately following graduation.
By Jim Mahar, Professor Columnist
jmahar@sbu.edu
