INDIAN RIVER COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
October, 2004 PACE-EH Report

Date:        October 29, 2004

To:             Daniel Parker, MSP, GAL
                    Assistant Division Director, Division of Environmental Health

From:         Julianne Renk, Environmental Specialist

Through:     Cheryl L. Dunn, RS, Environmental Manager

The first week of October was spent working on Hurricane Jeanne recovery efforts. With the aid of volunteers and Public Health Safety Officers, every member of the Wabasso community was contacted and their needs were assessed. Meals Ready-to-Eat, water, DEET, hand sanitizer, diapers, formula, and tarps were distributed to those who we identified to be in need of help. Perhaps the greatest need we identified was for housing. During the second week of October, the FEMA strike force arrived in Indian River County with travel trailers. Introducing and familiarizing the FEMA strike force with Wabasso took a couple of days, and they have continually been occupying the community, signing people up to receive trailers. Over twenty trailers are expected to arrive in Wabasso to relieve the housing needs of the residents who will be able to occupy the units for up to 18 months.

On Oct. 16th, Project Hope came to Wabasso for a scheduled workday and cleaned up debris and removed contents from homes that were destroyed. About forty people showed up for the community event and everyone worked extremely hard for the entire day. A lot was accomplished during the workday, and a compounded benefit to the clean up was the fact that the residents spirits seemed to be lifted by the outpouring of help. Homes that are slated to be rebuilt were re-evaluated and an architect has completed drawings for the first house to be built for Freeman Wiggs, an 82 year-old man who has lived in his car for almost three years!

Other noteworthy events that occurred in October include meeting with Habitat for Humanity (HFH) on October 22nd to confirm and cement a partnership between the county and their organization. Mr. Sneede, of HFH indicated that they are in negotiations to buy land in Wabasso with the future intent to build homes to meet housing needs. On October 25th, a meeting was held with the Indian River County Sheriff, Roy Raymond, to address drug trafficking in Wabasso. He vowed to do a project to address our concerns. True to his word, there was a drug sting two days later with police cars and at least eight K-9 dogs in Wabasso. I spoke during a radio broadcast on October 26th to promote the next community meeting which will be held on Nov. 1st and to update listeners on the progress being made in Wabasso. The remainder of time was utilized in October by going to specific community residents who have been asked to provide easements for a proposed $1 million water project that would provide access to county water and water connections for the community.

Past Indian River County Updates

September, 2004

August and July, 2004

June, 2004

May, 2004

Media Coverage

The following files are provided in the Adobe Acrobat pdf format. Files over 100 kb in size that may take longer to download and view, have their file size listed.

October 18, 2004 - Storms stall Wabasso help