Tornado-impacted property owners encouraged to take resources

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XENIA — The assistant Greene County administrator is encouraging local property owners impacted by the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes to call 2-1-1 to get help.

Calling United Way’s 2-1-1 HelpLink is the first critical step residents can take to enter case management if they haven’t already, Lisa Hale explained at the Jan. 23 Greene County Board of Commissioners meeting. The 24-hour help line connects residents in need of resources. At the last count, only 10 residents had taken advantage of the case management resources, Hale reported.

Hale attended the first meeting of the Miami Valley Long-Term Disaster Recovery Repair and Rebuild Task Force that morning. The group, made up of representatives from the three affected counties, discussed the Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) possibly coming to the area in the spring and summer to help with repair and rebuild efforts. A warehouse in Dayton is currently filling up with materials — siding, flooring, dry wall and more — to be used by the task force.

“We’ve got a long way to go for recovery here in Greene County and although we were not affected maybe to the major degree that others were affected, we still want to take care of our own here in Greene County,” she said.

A total of 1,443 buildings or structures in Greene County were impacted as a result of the storm including 86 destroyed buildings, 206 buildings with major damage, 395 buildings with minor damage, and 756 others affected, Hale reported.

Hale said she also learned that only around 60 people had requested a permit or an inspection from the Department of Building Regulation.

“We all have pride and there are people who think, well, there’s people worse off than me so I’m not going to take up any help,” Hale said to the commissioners. “But you know what, there’s a lot of resources out there that I feel like our people are not apprising themselves of that we really need to get them looped into. So that’s where we can all try to do better.”

After hearing the update, the commissioners were adamant about working to reach the impacted residents to offer resources. They suggested sending mailers and posting more information on the county website at www.co.greene.oh.us. More discussion on the matter is expected this week.

By Anna Bolton

[email protected]

Call 937-502-4498 or follow Anna Bolton, Reporter on Facebook.

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