- Budget cuts to AmeriCorps eliminate disaster recovery teams in Madison County ahead of hurricane season.
- Residents express concern over the loss of support.
- Watch the video to see damage from past hurricanes that hit Madison.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
When disaster strikes, rural communities rely on extra hands. But now, the helping hands of AmeriCorps volunteers are gone.
I’m Lentheus Chaney in Madison County, speaking with disaster response leaders and neighbors about what this loss means for the community.
Madison County knows the power of a helping hand—especially after a storm. That help used to come from AmeriCorps volunteers.
But last Friday, the federal government cut nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants, pulling thousands of volunteers off disaster sites—including teams working right here in Madison.
Groups like Starfish Disaster Recovery relied on those volunteers to clear trees, tarp roofs and support neighbors who couldn’t afford repairs—after three hurricanes in just 13 months.
Starfish co-founder Camilo Andrade says the sudden cut was a blow.
“AmeriCorps allows us to work five days a week, eight to 10 hours a day, long after everybody has left the area. And there, we primarily focus on serving the underserved communities—people who can’t afford to have their debris or their damage repaired,” Andrade said.
Theo Faucher, an AmeriCorps team leader for one of the Starfish-sponsored groups, spent six weeks helping Madison County neighbors recover from hurricane damage.
He says his team was unexpectedly recalled and sent home, but he’s hopeful there will be a solution to serve Madison in the future.
"I hope that other people will step up in the case of another disaster. I think it’s nice with AmeriCorps—you have a big group of people you can count on,” Faucher said.
With hurricane season on the horizon, Madison neighbors like Pamala Pickren say the absence of AmeriCorps leaves Madison County—and rural communities like it—at greater risk. Her message to government officials:
“Please get our AmeriCorps back and going. They are so needed, and they have helped millions—I mean millions—of people in the United States with fires and floods and everything else that you can imagine,” Pickren said.
Andrade says AmeriCorps volunteers contributed nearly $1.5 million worth of disaster recovery work in Madison County—support that will be hard to replace heading into this hurricane season.
In Madison County, I’m Lentheus Chaney, ABC27.
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