Mission Statement
“Let us love one another.” -1 John 4:7
The Northern Abacos Relief and Rebuild (NARR) team was formed through The Church By The Sea to provide immediate and direct relief for the specific Bahamian Family Villages in the Northern Abacos. The team is committed to the long-term rebuilding of communities and establishing relationships for the future development and support of the local area.
In addition to meeting the immediate needs of the communities, a multi-phase plan has been put in place to coordinate efforts to repair and rebuild family residences, clinics, churches and schools within each of the settlements. To date, these efforts have been funded by private, independent donors who share the passion for ensuring that all monies, supplies and donations directly impact Northern Abacos.
Our efforts to date have established an effective, passionate and dedicated team both here in Florida as well as on the ground in The Northern Abacos. This team is intimately involved in the local community and has a proven system for the purchase, transportation, delivery and distribution of materials. Moving forward, plans to expand the team include contractors and labor forces that can assist in the rebuilding of the local Villages.
Ultimately NARR plans to aid in the repair and rebuilding of the estimated 250 homes and 7 churches within the 5 Family Villages to ensure safety for families residing in these homes and preventing them from being displaced.
The Family Villages
The Northern Abacos area encompasses five “Family Villages,” located between Cedar Harbor and Crown Haven. These villages are home to a large percentage of the labor pool for the Abacos and are where a vast majority of Abaco Fisherman live. As such, they provide the majority of the seafood to the rest of the Abacos and for export, particularly lobster. There is very little tourism or foreign visitors which makes them well positioned to thrive on commerce-based economy that can be developed due to their new commercial port in Coopers Town and proximity to Florida.
Following Hurricane Dorian, no relief was delivered to these communities for the first week. Due to the devastation of bridges and roadways, relief efforts have been scarce and the communities have been overlooked by larger support organization.
At this point, the church is only focusing on monetary donations. If you would like to support this relief effort, click the button below and select the “Dorian Relief” fund for your donation.
Mission Progress
Medical Relief
September 10, 2019
NARR was able to use this generous donors sport fishing vessel to deliver people and supplies. The first trip delivered two paramedics and a cook to the Pacific Hope medical relief ship (pictured left).
Thank you to Trevor Carroll and Josh Gulbranson for spearheading this mission.
Supplies Staging
September 18, 2019
In a collaborative effort with a grassroots Palm Beach county relief group, two full 40 ft shipping containers of relief supplies were loaded onto a cargo ship to be delivered 9/28/19 directly to Fox Town, Abaco. These supplies were distributed directly to the people of Fox Town through Zion Baptist Church in Mount Hope.
Included in the containers were 10 pallets of water, basic medical relief supplies, food, baby items, personal hygiene products, tents, flashlights & batteries, clean up supplies and backpacks/school supplies and other miscellanious needs. These items were collected through Kelly & Brian Kirkpatrick, Taylor Family Foundation, CS/NRI, along with several other thoughtful parties. Special assistance and discounts from Tropical Shipping were extremely helpful in storage and transport of supplies from warehouse to the loading dock.
In addition to the items collected in Palm Beach, 15,000 square feet of roofing supplies including shingles and paper were purchased with NARR funding through Gulf Eagle Suppliers, a local supplier offering a generous discount in contribution to our effort.
Generator Delivery
September 25, 2019
To fulfill specific requests from the local community, 45 x 2000 KW generators, extension cords, gas cans and oil were purchased with NARR funds and delivered directly to Fox Town. From Fox Town, the generators and accessories were personally distributed with the help of a trusted group of Bahamian community leaders directly to the people of Fox Town and Coopers Town.
The delivery was made with the use of a donated sport fish boat, Tar Rheels, and donated time of Trevor Carroll and his crew of Pat Brennan of Fort Lauderdale and a Bahamian local--Stuart Lowe of Green Turtle, Abaco. While the primary purpose of the trip was to deliver much needed supplies to Northern Abaco, Stuart was an integral part in helping not only distribute items but providing intel and helping to create alliances with other Bahamians and government officials to properly assess the damage and immediate needs in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.
More Roofing Supplies
October 8, 2019
With only a couple days notice, NARR was informed of a boat, 4Ocean Marine, that would be leaving for Cooperstown and that it had space for relief items. We called our team to action and with the collaborative efforts of NARR and our Palm Beach NARR subcommittee, we were able to figure out the logistics of picking up donated items, delivery of paid items and coordinating loading pallets onto the ship.
There was 40,000 square feet of donated peel & stick roofing material and NARR used funds to purchase 40,000 square feet of additional shingles and paper along with 10,000 square feet of plywood. Altogether, NARR is delivering over 80,000 square feet of complete roofing materials! To put it into prospective, this is enough material to help over 200 partially damaged homes or 50 complete new roofs. What an amazing effort in just a few days.
Formal Damage Assessment Trip
October 12, 2019
A team of eight visited the five Family Villages to meet up with community leaders/pastors to perform a formal damage analysis. Findings from this trip will be used to prepare a formal action plan for a larger scale rebuild and to assist with funding.