For Immediate Release
December 13, 2007

Pacific Northwest Burners Without Borders respond to need for flood assistance.

Contact: Kitty Vennes kittyvennes [at] hotmail.com
Amani Ellen Loutfy amaniellen [at] gmail.com

The Pacific Northwest experienced some record wind and rainfall the weekend of December 1, 2007.
Levees broke, and many counties were flooded. As the water line receded nearly a week later, Grays Harbor, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston counties were declared federal disaster areas, but as you know Mother Nature doesn't recognize county lines, and the surrounding areas are nearly just as damaged. Most of western Washington state suffered damage, and the tallies are still adding up. We anticipate that more counties will be declared disasters too, as people dig out of the muck and report the damage they sustained.

Farmers are out millions of dollars in equipment and livestock, tens of thousands of families are out of house and home, left with nothing after these fierce storms.

The governor of Washington state has declared the counties listed above as disaster areas, and the President has sanctioned them to receive FEMA funding, but as usual, there's a lot of paperwork to be done, and waiting periods to sit through, to get whatever help is offered. Some information is available on the Washington state website for residents and business owners, and the Red Cross is offering some help too, but as usual, there are large and immediate gaps to fill.

Some Burners Without Borders in Seattle have organized a help drive. We're taking donations of goods and gift cards, please contact Kitty Vennes, at kittyvennes [at] hotmail.com for information on when and where to drop off these items. Research is being done to determine where volunteer labor is needed, and where we can help. We'll send out more information as we get it. Thank you for your interest and support.

To join the PNW BWB group, go to http://justcauseit.com/causes/burners-without-bo... and join the group (create quick profile to join).
Information is being sent out to the PNW Burning Man-affiliated email list too, burningman-bcwa [at] yahoogroups.com (standard subscription to yahoogroups necessary)
We'll also be posting information on the Burners Without Borders website as we get it.

thank you for your support,
Pacific Northwest Burners Without Borders