History of PCDRC
The Pamlico County Disaster Recovery Coalition (PCDRC) was formed in October 2011 after Hurricane Irene went through the county with flooding in Lowland, Hobucken, Mesic, Maribel, Vandemere, areas of Bayboro, Merritt, Florence, Whortonsville, Oriental, Dawson’s Creek, Kennels Beach, and areas in between communities. People in communities such as Hobucken, Mesic, and Oriental were organizing help for local residents with food and supplies from food banks and donors known to local area officials. A group of individuals from all over the county got together once it was known that the county lacked a unified effort to help ALL communities and areas in between effected by the hurricane.
The first official meeting of the Pamlico County Disaster Recovery Coalition was held on 12/15/2011 where the following individuals were voted on the PCDRC Board of Directors:
Officers
Chair Person: Dawn Baldwin Gibson
Vice Chair Person: Miriam Prescott
Secretary: Joan Spain Leary
Treasurer: Joy Carawan
PCDRC Committee Chairs
Case Management – Marilyn Jones
Fundraising – Merritt Watson
Volunteer Coordinator – Jewel Styron
Warehouse Manager – Everett (Ross) Barrow
Representative of County Mayors – Mayor Booker T. Jones
Hazel Alcock
Melvin Alston
Marva Baldwin
Everett (Ross) Barrow
Joy Carawan
Flo Daniels
Dawn Baldwin Gibson
Kenny Heath – Pamlico County Commissioner
Vinnie Himbry
Judy Humphries
Booker T. Jones
Sandra Phelps – United Way Executive Director, PCDRC Fiscal Agent
Marilyn Jones
Margie Lassiter
Joan Spain Leary
Miriam Prescott
Roseanne Rowe
Norman Sanderson –State Representative
Jewel Styron
Bishop Melvin Walker
Merritt Watson
The Board of Directors met twice a week for several months then monthly.
The NC Baptist Men and the NC Conference Methodist Church on Disaster (UMCOR) were the
Two main groups that came to Pamlico County to help with tear outs (removing the damaged
Interior of flooded homes) and bringing in their own rebuild teams. Faith-based volunteer groups came in 2012 and 2013 to help with the rebuild process. PCDRC funds came from
Donations and fundraisers to help buy building materials, etc to rebuild homes.
A generic set of Bylaws was drafted for the Pamlico County Disaster Recovery Coalition on February 9, 2012.
At the board meeting on October 12, 2012, Dawn Baldwin Gibson resigned as Chair Person and Vice-Chair, Miriam Prescott resigned. Case Management ended. It was decided by those board members present that due to low attendance, the PCDRC would go inactive and meet quarterly or semi-annually.
On November 20, 2012, Sandra Phelps, United Way Executive Director, sent an email to the two remaining officers: Joan Leary, Secretary and Joy Carawan, Treasurer. The United Way Board voted to extend their time as fiscal agent for the disbursing of PCDRC funds with the following condition: By December 31, 2012, the PCDRC must have a Chairman and Vice-Chairman in place.
In December, 2012, Jewel Styron agreed to be Chairman, Booker T. Jones agreed to be Vice-Chairman, Joan Leary continued as Secretary, and Joy Carawan continued as Treasurer. Money continued to flow to help pay for supplies at the Mt. Zion Original Baptist Church in Vandemere, where volunteer church groups were housed during the rebuild phase in 2012 and 2013. Funds were also used to purchase rebuild materials for volunteer groups. Communication between the board members was done via telephone and email with no official meetings held until the annual meeting on May 9, 2013.
Chairman, Jewel Styron conducted the meeting. The board voted to take the remaining funds left and divide them between the NC Baptist Men (Gerald Williamson, leader) and NCUMCDR
(NC United Methodist Conference Disaster Relief ( Bruce Watson, leader) with the written agreement that the funds would only be spent on rebuilding homes in Pamlico County.
Joy Carawan, Treasurer reported that after paying NC Baptist Men and the Methodist Men the remaining funds, the total expenditures for Hurricane Irene were $213,910.44.
As Volunteer Team Coordinator, Jewel Styron reported that the Mt. Zion Center housed 983 volunteers in 2012 and will house 561 in 2013. These faith-based groups came from over 8 states including North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Vermont, Florida and as far as Canada.
Due to inactivity during the hurricane seasons between 2013 – 2018, and poor health of several officers, no further meetings were held.
This background history of the PCDRC has been compiled by Joy Carawan Baker from Secretary minutes and emails saved in a notebook from 2011 – 2013.
On September 13, 2018, Hurricane Florence devastated all of Pamlico County with flooding, tree damage, and wind driven rain. Once the distribution center opened on September 17, 2018, many of the PCDRC board members came to help. Towards the end of October, the distribution center closed. The PCDRC needed to be re-activated. Joy Carawan Baker, Treasurer, was the only officer still active and serving. Jewel Styron was no longer able to serve as Chairman. Joy Carawan Baker agreed to become Acting Chairman and make calls to establish additional acting officers and board members from communities around the county.
Sandra Phelps, United Way Director, agreed to be fiduciary agent for the PCDRC 9-27-18 and opened an account for the PCDRC funds.
On November 15, 2018, Joy Baker, Chairman held the first board meeting after the hurricane. The acting officers and board members were voted on the Executive Board of Directors for the PCDRC.
The PCDRC Board of Directors for 2018 were as follows:
Chairman – Joy Carawan Baker
Vice Chairmen - Everett John Hill and Douglas Pearsall
Treasurer – Kathryn Garcia
Secretary - (not filled)
Beth Bucksot – Government Liaison
Board Members and their communities
Jennie Adams – Kennels Beach
Vickie Mosley Jones - Pamlico
Melvin Alston – Florence
Rudell King - Mesic
Carolyn Braly – Minnesott Beach Debbie Peltier - Vandemere
Joy Guidry – Hobucken/Lowland Sandra Phelps – United Way, Fiscal Agent
Hattie Harrell – Oriental Pat Prescott - Reelsboro
Kenny Health – Arapahoe Vauhn Purnell – Presbyterian Church USA Rep.
Marilyn Jones – Stonewall Allen Price - Oriental
Marvella Jones – Maribel Norman Sanderson – Legislative Liaison
On February 21, 2019, Bylaws of the Pamlico County Disaster Recovery Coalition were officially amended and signed.
The Partnership of Children partnered with the PCDRC at the distribution center and allowed caseworkers and officers to worked from their office until January 2019 when and office was opened. An Administrative Grant from Week of Compassion gave the PCDRC funding to open an office and pay utilities. The office opened at 210 Vandemere Road, Bayboro, NC. The phone number was 252-745-0883.
Joy Baker opened the office on January 24, 2019, but had no help to answer the phone or meet with clients. On February 21, 2019, the NC Emergency Management (NCEM) sent Linda Nicholson, an employee to work in the office from 830am – 430pm Monday – Friday. She was provided a car, lodging, food, computer and a salary by the NCEM. Linda answered the phone, met with survivors, and helped to run the office. She also communicated information between Endeavors, an organization hired by the state to do casework in each county) and the PCDRC. Endeavors was not allowed to talk directly to Chairman Baker about any survivors they were serving in the county. Over 550 client damage assessments were filed with the office in 2019. All of the forms listed roof damage. Joy Baker started doing casework in survivor’s homes to assess the damage, take photos, and determine homes that could be repaired with faith- based church groups that contacted her to schedule times to volunteer. With no help other than Linda Nicholson, Joy Baker became the Volunteer Team Coordinator, the Construction Manager, Secretary, and Treasurer. Through and agreement with Casey Perry, Manager of Camp Caroline, volunteer teams stayed in some cabins and had access to a dining hall for meals for a nominal fee. The first church group came in March 2019 and replaced roofs of two double wide mobile homes. No church groups were coming again until April 2019. Grant money was available for qualified home repairs but we had no workers. It was approved by the PCDRC Board that contractors be hired to repair/replace roofs so church groups could come behind them and repair the inside of the home. Hiring contractors to replace roofs continued through 2020. Volunteer groups worked 3, 794 hours during 2019 and 709.5 hours in 2020 before COVID-19 caused the state to shut down. No other faith- based church groups have come to the county to help with rebuild homes. Samaritan’s Purse came to the county to rebuild homes whose owners had called their home office for help. The PCDRC office contacted Samaritan’s Purse coordinator in New Bern, NC and some referrals were made for new homes or trailers that were beyond the funds per house limit set by the PCDRC Board. The PCDRC could not get help from any disaster organizations due to the extensive damage done to Craven, Carteret, Jones, and other counties west of Pamlico County.
Linda McDonald came to work at the office on August 6, 2019, through the Green Lamp program for people who lost their jobs because of Hurricane Florence. With her knowledge of EXCEL, she had all the 550 + damage assessment forms in a database and sorted within two weeks. She continued to input information, and took over answering the phone, maintaining office hours, and taking information from survivors after the NC Emergency Management office pulled Linda Nicholson out of the office due to the COVID-19 shutdown March 7, 2020.
On March 8, 2020, Fuller Center Disaster Rebuilders, came to the office and agreed to rebuild houses only anywhere in the county if they could hire our contractors. Between March and August 2020, Fuller Center paid for the rebuilding of 17 homes. Working from their base in New Bern, Fuller Center has continued to partner with the PCDRC to share funds to rebuild homes in Pamlico County.
The PCDRC Board Meeting for March 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. In April an update was emailed to the Board of Directors. Linda McDonald was asked by Chairman, Joy Baker to transcribed the audio recorded board meetings minutes starting August 15, 2019. She has continued to be acting Secretary until another person is found to be Secretary.
Brethren Disaster Ministries (BDM) moved their operations from Lumberton to Mr. Zion OFWB Church in June 2020, and partnered with the PCDRC to provide free labor and have the building materials paid for by PCDRC grants. BDM also partnered with Fuller Center to provide labor with PCDRC and Fuller Center sharing the expense of building materials. Rebuild work in Pamlico County continued during the COVID lockdown as Fuller Center used hired contractors and BDM labor.
PCDRC Board Meetings were cancelled March – April 2020 because PCDRC had no volunteers and nothing to report. Starting in July 2020, PCDRC Board Meetings were held via a conference call number obtained from NCVOAD (North Carolina Volunteers Active in Disasters). In February 2021, NCVOAD helped the PCDRC hold board meetings using a conference call or dial in for zoom meetings.
December 31, 2020, Joy Baker resigned as Chairman of the PCDRC but presented a new slate of officers she recruited for 2021. Chairman of the PCDRC remained unfilled. Bob Fuller was voted on the board as Vice-Chairman. The Secretary and Treasurer resigned after a month.
On May 18, 2021, Bob Fuller was voted Chairman and Allen Price was voted on the Executive Board as Vice-Chairman.