Long-term effort in Gowanda taking shape - ObserverToday.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information - Dunkirk | The Observer

Long-term effort in Gowanda taking shape - ObserverToday.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information - Dunkirk | The Observer:

"BonaResponds, a volunteer group based in St. Bonaventure University, was one of the first to reach Gowanda following the floods and saw the potential for a devoted organizational entity. They contacted one of the larger organizations after which they had modeled their own efforts: Hands On Disaster Response (HODR) out of Massachusetts.

'Initial reports pointed toward about 400 homes being affected and that got my attention because that's kind of our threshold for going in and physically assessing,' said Bill Driscoll, Jr., operations director for HODR. 'So I arrived in Gowanda that following Tuesday and met up with ... Bona Responds and we toured the area, talked to residents and local officials about what had happened and the efforts that were under way.'

Initially, Driscoll said, the consensus from people he spoke with was that things should quickly return to normal. The organization waited, remaining in contact with BonaResponds for updates on the situation, and later came in when it started to become evident that recovery would take longer than expected.

'It became pretty clear that there was a need for some help coordinating everyone - all the groups that were active in the non-profit and volunteer world - and just trying to harness all the different efforts that were happening in such a way to be a little more effective and a little more efficient,' Driscoll said."