HOW TO HELP ** MERCY RESPONSE-VINEYARD USA ** FLOOD PICS ** THANK YOUS ** ON-LINE DONATIONS

The IOWA floods of June 2008: An Overview

On Friday, June 13th, 2008 the Cedar River, which runs through the heart of Cedar Rapids, Iowa at an average depth of 7 feet, crested over its' banks at 31.12 feet. As the river receded, which topped flood stage levels by nearly 20 feet, the statistics left behind were staggering. 5,390 flood-affected homes with 25,000 people displaced in Cedar Rapids and 1,300 city blocks (9 square miles) were hit, leaving a vast array of business and residential properties with extensive flood damage! The recovery and rebuilding efforts here in Cedar Rapids and Linn County are massive and will take years to accomplish. The toll is not only in property damage, but more importantly, there are countless individuals and families who have lost nearly all their earthly belongings and worldly treasures.

Here at VINEYARD CHURCH of CEDAR RAPIDS, we are fortunate that our facility is located outside the flooded areas, but we did have 15 to 20 families in our church community who did suffer major losses from the floods. Within a few days of the flood crest, the Vineyard church family from across the nation began calling us, asking if they could help with our flood relief efforts.

By Friday, June 20th, MERCY RESPONSE-VINEYARD USA rolled into Cedar Rapids bringing with them nearly three years of hands-on Katrina relief experience from New Orleans. Working under the direction of Mercy Response coordinator Phil Schissler and team leaders, Jeff and Janell Hirschoff, we immediately began coordinating both flood relief and recovery efforts out of CAMP VINEYARD, located at our church facility (5101 16th Ave SW in Cedar Rapids).

With the generous leadership assistance from MERCY RESPONSE, Camp Vineyard was quickly established with enough equipment and supplies to place up to 100 volunteers into area-wide neighborhoods each day throughout the summer of 2008, cleaning up and gutting homes, offering our neighbors the much-needed immediate flood relief they needed! By Labor Day, 2008, we had brought together over 500 volunteers from around the nation to join with our own church labor force to gut and clean-up over 85 flood-affected homes in Cedar Rapids alone! Other Iowa communities such as Palo, Vinton, Cedar Falls, and Iowa City, all received help from our Mercy Response teams and at any given moment throughout the summer, there were nearly 40-50 volunteers eating and sleeping at CAMP VINEYARD, being sent out on a daily basis to begin the first phase of FLOOD RELIEF in Cedar Rapids and eastern Iowa!

Long-Term Flood Recovery: What's Next?

Teamed with MERCY RESPONSE VINEYARD-USA, we are now in the midst of our long-term flood recovery efforts in Cedar Rapids. As the neighborhood associations and the city, county, and state governments come together on an agreement on the long-term rebuilding strategy, VINEYARD CHURCH of CEDAR RAPIDS is committed as a church community in doing whatever is necessary to help rebuild our city through the combined efforts of local neighborhood leaders, community leaders, social relief organizations and other faith-based initiatives. We are now directly connected with the LINN AREA LONG-TERM RECOVERY COALITION, BEACON OF HOPE RESOURCE CENTERS of New Orleans, and others in bringing long-term neighborhood recovery efforts to our community.
How YOU can HELP!

The REBUILDING and RECOVERY EFFORTS in CEDAR RAPIDS will continue for years. It has taken Grand Forks, ND ten years to recover from a similar city-wide flood in 1997.

Here at VINEYARD CHURCH of CEDAR RAPIDS, we plan to continue to join efforts with MERCY RESPONSE and sub-divide our LONG-TERM FLOOD RECOVERY EFFORTS into six-month WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SENDING VOLUNTEER TEAMS TO CEDAR RAPIDS and HOW YOU CAN DONATE $$$ TOWARD THE EFFORT!

Donating $$ to our Flood Efforts

There are TWO WAYS you can DONATE to our FLOOD of 2008 RELIEF and RECOVERY EFFORTS...

A. DONATE TO MERCY RESPONSE-VINEYARD USA (click here for details).

B. DONATE TO VINEYARD CHURCH of CEDAR RAPIDS (click here for details).

PLEASE PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER DONATING GENEROUSLY TOWARD THIS ON-GOING FLOOD RELIEF EFFORT! If you would like to donate toward that cause, please CLICK HERE to be taken to our safe and secure donation process through PAYPAL and mark your gift "Flood Relief". All gifts will be recorded as a "non-profit charitable contribution" and at year-end, you will receive a church receipt for your tax purposes.

If you would like to mail your donation in, please mail to:

Thank You's from Camp Vineyard

Our flood relief and recovery efforts have happened only because of the amazing efforts of individuals, churches, and organizations who have contributed countless time, energy and resources toward the goal. Click here to view our THANK YOU page of contributing organizations and individuals.

Flood of 2008 Pics

As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words. Keep up with our Vineyard Church of Cedar Rapids on-going flood relief and recovery efforts by linking over to our FLOOD PICTURE page.

How to Get Help

If you are a VICTIM of the FLOOD of 2008, our goal is to offer YOU the best assistance we can. Your first step is to visit the CORRIDOR RECOVERY website. Here you will find ALL the necessary info on filing for FEMA aid, re-entering your neighborhood or business to begin the recovery effort, and getting important INFORMATION about the recovery process.

Listen to this...

One of our prophetic voices brought this word to us..."This (the flood of 2008) is not a flood of judgement, but a FLOOD OF OPPORTUNITIES! In my mind I had this picture of the flood waters roaring through homes and washing out all the things that we thought were important, only to be replaced by the one thing that is truly important, which is God Himself...God coming to make room for His glory to dwell!"

MP3 Stream

THE IOWA FLOODS of 2008: The Recovery Begins by Senior Pastor Marty Boller & Vineyard USA Mercy Response Director Phil Schissler given 6/22/2008 [Download MP3 - 32 min]

MP3 Stream

THE IOWA FLOODS of 2008: What Now? by Senior Pastor Marty Boller given 6/15/2008 [Download MP3 - 31 min]