Flood Victims

OVER THE weekend, as North Carolina residents braced themselves for the third hurricane in two months, a group of Columbians headed south to offer relief to flood victims.Wilde Lake resident Ruteena Blake grew up in Wilson, N.C. -- a small tobacco farming town in the eastern part of the state.Hearing reports of flood damage in her hometown, she sent a donation to the Red Cross for relief efforts. But that wasn't enough to satisfy her desire to help."Hard times have hit them like they could hit us," she said.

CUERO, Texas -- With frustration growing among flood victims and damage estimates that could top $1 billion statewide, Gov. George W. Bush reassured residents of this ravaged city yesterday that help is coming.Twenty-nine people were killed statewide as a result of storms that triggered severe floods in south and central Texas and tornadoes elsewhere. Rains last weekend dumped as much as 24 inches in some areas."The money is on the way," Bush told one resident during a stop at Cuero High School with James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

NEARLY A DOZEN members of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Taneytown are leaving this weekend for South Dakota to help repair houses damaged by spring floods.The group will visit the aptly named community of Watertown, where they will spend a week fixing homes mostly of elderly flood victims.The Rev. John S. Douglas, who will accompany the expedition, said volunteers do more than repair homes when they visit disaster areas. They also provide emotional and spiritual support to victims.

For the next two weeks, three tractor-trailers will be parked at Towson United Methodist Church to receive donations for victims of the flooding along the North Dakota-Minnesota border.Items such as diapers, blankets, toothbrushes and toothpaste and cleaning supplies and nonperishable foods are needed.Donations may be left at the church, 501 Hampton Lane, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today through Friday and May 19 through 23. Information: 410-823-6511.The effort is being sponsored by Beacon Van Lines, Golden Signs, Re-Creations and Allseason's Transportation, Travel & Tours Inc.Pub Date: 5/12/97

It was 10 days before Christmas. What Bonni Crispin saw was not the preholiday festivities of her hometown, Hampstead. She was in the flood-ravaged Midwest. She saw mud."You could see the line where the water had sat in the houses for a very long time," Ms. Crispin said. "It covered the whole first floor. Silos, knocked over like tin cans, were in the middle of the fields. At one intersection, the road was closed to the right because there was no road. It was all dirt."She went to Missouri and Illinois as part of the Carroll County relief program.

Chicago.--Disaster relief is an American tradition that few challenge. We all suffer hardships, and do not expect the government to rush to our assistance each time an illness or accident plays havoc with our individual lives. But when a whole region is damaged economically, we feel that some form of compensation is needed to restore it to its place in the overall financial health of the nation.There is no absolute case-by-case justice to this. Some of the people in Iowa who will be helped by the government have savings and investments and assets surpassing mine or yours.

The first truckload of bottled water, canned foods, diapers and money collected under "Operation Bring Your Own Bottled Water" left Carroll County Wednesday on the first leg of a journey to the flooded Midwest.Salvation Army workers at Bethesda Methodist Church in Gamber loaded 500 gallons of water and 200 pounds of food and diapers on a truck bound for Washington, D.C., where the items will be placed on a train for shipment to St. Louis, Mo., or Iowa.Rachelle Hurwitz, a Uniontown resident and community activist, initiated the campaign to collect bottled water and other goods for flood victims a month ago. She has been collecting items three or four mornings a week outside the Giant store in Westminster.

Suzanne Mead may not wear the traditional garb of a Santa's helper, but the Mount Airy woman has been working long hours to make sure a community of Missouri flood victims are remembered at Christmas.With a computer, a telephone, and a box filled with 3-by-5-inch cards, Mrs. Mead is coordinating Mount Airy's "Adopt-a-Family" project. Area benefactors are being matched with families who lost their homes and possessions this summer to the raging Mississippi River flood waters.The Mount Airy relief effort is helping residents of Alexandria, Mo., where many families literally have "nothing but the clothes on their backs," said Mrs. Mead.

An Elkridge church and the local office of a can manufacturing company are working together to send food and other supplies to flood victims in the Midwest.Melville Chapel United Methodist Church and the U.S. Can Co. are sending a truck loaded with donations to Moline, Ill.Linda Mayer, a church member and shipping and receiving clerk with the can company, organized the relief effort. The 35-year-old Elkridge woman said she was in church last month praying for flood victims when she thought of the plan.

As rain continues to soak the Midwest, Carroll residents are collecting bottled water, canned food and other necessities for flood victims there.And at least one county resident was to be en route to Missouri today to work with displaced families. Marge Libertini of Lineboro, a member of the American Red Cross disaster services team, was scheduled to leave for Platte City, Mo., to help flood-stricken families "determine their needs and how to meet their needs," said Leni Uddyback, a Red Cross spokeswoman.

Balto. Co. breaks ground for center 2 Baltimore County broke ground Friday on the $4.5 million Jacksonville Community Center in Phoenix. The 14,400-square-foot facility will include the Jacksonville Senior Center, serving more than 700 seniors, as well as a gymnasium, meeting rooms, and exercise and activity areas. Plans for the 32-acre property on Sweet Air Road also call for two athletic fields, a playground and a walking trail through Sweet Air Park. The center is expected to open in August.

4 Afghans die in blast outside U.S. Embassy KABUL, Afghanistan: A suicide car bomb targeting a convoy of foreign troops exploded about 200 yards outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul yesterday, killing at least four Afghan bystanders as people entered the compound for a Thanksgiving Day race. At least 18 others were wounded in the morning attack, said Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman. Police officer Abdul Manan said the explosion was set off by a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla.

You had to feel for Brian Wilson when the MTV cameras abruptly switched from him Saturday as he was asking if it would be all right to do a second number for one of the weekend's hurricane relief telethons. Still, someone at MTV had to say "no" at some point. No offense to Wilson, but the telethon had already stretched from three hours to just over four to accommodate all the artists who wanted to participate - and that made the show feel bloated. Especially on the heels of 4 1/2 hours from two telethons Friday and a one-hour NBC fundraiser the weekend before.

With some Tropical Storm Isabel victims receiving fresh denials of additional coverage under the federal flood insurance program, Maryland's U.S. senators sent a letter yesterday to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge asking for him to revive a third-party review of unsettled claims. Sens. Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski sent another letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday asking him to look into allegations by flood victims' advocate Steve Kanstoroom that "material misstatements of fact" by officials at the federal flood program and its subcontractors have cost policyholders thousands of dollars.

With 65 Baltimore County families still living in trailers and others in rental properties because their homes were damaged by Tropical Storm Isabel last year, County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said yesterday that government should continue to help storm victims. "We can't tire just because it's been a year later," Smith said at a news conference, where he called for reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program and requested more financial assistance for storm victims. Smith said he was proud of his administration's response to the storm, including the emergency assistance to victims and help in cleaning up battered communities.

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. - Steve Kanstoroom, whose home on Maryland's Eastern Shore was gutted last year by Tropical Storm Isabel, wandered up a driveway near Florida's Gulf coast this week and found a couple sorting through the wreckage left by Hurricane Charley. The washer and dryer, the furniture, the clothes and even the walls - everything in the first-floor apartment seemed a total loss to Rachel Zammit. She said her flood insurance adjuster set the damage at $1,000. The stress, she said, has her smoking again.

A dozen Maryland residents hand-picked by state officials to represent victims of Tropical Storm Isabel are calling on Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Maryland Insurance Commissioner Alfred W. Redmer Jr. to put more pressure on federal officials to process flood insurance claims fairly and quickly. At a meeting last night in Annapolis, the residents, many still living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, told officials that they have not received adequate insurance settlements to help them rebuild.

Auditors from a federal inspector general's office have begun an investigation of the National Flood Insurance Program's handling of claims from Tropical Storm Isabel, according to flood victims and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski's office. Two flood victims who have been leaders in the effort to secure increased settlements, Bernice Myer and Steve Kanstoroom, said they were interviewed this week by federal auditors. Mikulski spokeswoman Amy E. Hagovsky said yesterday that the auditors plan to complete their interviews by the end of the month, but she said she was not given other details of the investigation.

The head of the federal flood insurance program has resigned weeks after promising an overhaul of his agency and agreeing to review the thousands of disputed claims from Tropical Storm Isabel, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday. The spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, declined to discuss the reasons that Anthony S. Lowe, director of the National Flood Insurance Program, gave for his departure Thursday. She said the claims review will continue and that Lowe's deputy, Trey Reid, will be acting director.

A Washington law firm filed suit yesterday in federal court on behalf of thousands of Tropical Storm Isabel victims, alleging that seven insurance companies systematically sought to shortchange flood policyholders. The class action suit, apparently the first ever to target private insurance companies for their handling of policies from the federal government's flood insurance program, claims that victims were coerced to sign "proof of loss" forms that understated their damages. The suit also alleges that the insurance companies employed price guidelines that significantly underestimated the cost of labor and materials.