Last Saturday, March 28, 2020, severe storms rolled through Beaver County, bringing flash floods and power outages. Some residents of Valley Terrace (D Building) in Aliquippa lost everything - furniture, clothing, medical equipment - as the floodwater invaded their homes; every resident the lost perishable foods stored in refrigerators that remained off for hours.
The timing couldn't have been worse, as so many in our community and across the nation are reeling from layoffs, lost income, and isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But rather than retreat into despair, Beaver Countians are responding with hope, with help, and with an understanding that it's on all of us to get each other through this crisis.
"This past week, churches and organizations came together, uniting their resources to provide food and other necessary items to families displaced by the flooding," Lieutenant Candace Horsman, Corps Officer for The Salvation Army of Aliquippa explains. A group of nearly two dozen from various local churches and community organizations met at the Salvation Army's Franklin Avenue headquarters on Wednesday, April 1st to pack and load boxes of food and hygiene items, delivering them to Valley Terrace residents later that day. "We were honored to be a part of the multi-organizational effort to help and will continue to work with partners to provide long term support to those families," Horsman says.
"D Building, your city loves you," Pastor Joel Repic from the Gospel Tabernacle writes. His church has been working with residents and Valley Terrace management to improve living conditions there.
Follow the organizations tagged above to be the first to learn of ways to help, and check back to The Listening Library to hear firsthand from residents.