IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jacob Kramer, CRWRC Disaster Response Director, cell 905-220-3498 or 1-800-730-3490

Beth DeGraff, CRWRC Media Contact, 1-800-55-CRWRC or cell 616-648-7821

Nashville Church Members Accounted for as CRWRC Responds to Storms Slashing U.S.

May 7, 2010—Reverend Jerry Hoek of Faith Christian Reformed Church in Nashville, Tennessee,
contacted the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) early this week to let staff
know that all of the church’s members are accounted for after a weekend of heavy rain deluged the
southern U.S., and resulting floods killed 21 people in Tennessee alone.

“We are very thankful that to our knowledge, no one in our congregation has been seriously affected
by the flooding, but the loss of life and the destruction of property involved has hit our city hard,”
Hoek said. CRWRC’s Disaster Response Services (DRS) is collaborating with Hoek’s congregation
and with response coordinators for several other disasters from Mississippi to Maine.

The massive storm system that raked over Tennessee last weekend also spun off a tornado, and killed
10 more people in Mississippi and Kentucky. With scores of people still missing and area rivers
receding, the death toll is expected to rise.

“CRWRC-DRS volunteer managers Rick and Bonnie Wiersma are overseeing responses in the
eastern U.S. region,” says CRWRC-DRS director Bill Adams. “Regional managers are juggling
coordination of our activities related to the flooding on the East Coast last month, a monster tornado
in the Yazoo City, Mississippi, area two weeks ago, and the current flooding in and around
Nashville.”

The agency has also received a request for needs assessments from Rhode Island and from the
Disaster Recovery Committee in Somerset, New Jersey, (SADRC) where heavy flooding is wreaking
havoc on local residents this month. CRWRC collaborated with SADRC after Hurricane Floyd in
the same area in 1999.

SADRC representatives noted on Tuesday in an email that, “because of what we experienced eleven
years ago working together, we are very interested in moving forward to arrange assessment teams
from CRWRC to work in the Somerset area as quickly as possible.”

Adams said that CRWRC-DRS is setting up volunteer work crews in each location to help with
cleaning up, mucking out, and repairing victim’s homes and businesses. CRWRC-DRS will also
assess needs for a possible reconstruction phase of these responses, coordinating each phase with state
and federal agencies as well as local organizations and other national-level emergency relief groups.

Rev. Hoek at Faith CRC in Nashville states his small but sturdy congregation is ready to help. “Right
now, most everything is still in the immediate recovery stage,” Hoek says, “but soon, clean up and
rebuilding will begin. We want to work as much as we can with our denomination in this effort.”

CRWRC-DRS is appealing for financial support to respond to these disasters. Donations to

“Spring Storms 2010” can be given online at www.crwrc.org, or by phone call to 1-800-55-
CRWRC. Checks made out to CRWRC, with “Spring Storms 2010” written in the memo line can
be mailed to CRWRC, 2850 Kalamazoo Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49560-0600.

Members of the press wishing to arrange an interview with Bill Adams, call cell, 616-560-2782. For
more information about CRWRC, call media contact Beth DeGraff at cell 616-648-7821.
For more information about these programs, visit www.crwrc.org or call 1-800-55-CRWRC.CRWRC
is a faith-based relief and development organization with 45 years of expertise, including Hurricane
Katrina and Asia Tsunami response. CRWRC is active in more than 30 of the world’s poorest countries,
seeking to “live justice” and “love mercy” by working with 160 national partner organizations in their
communities to end poverty and hunger.

CRWRC is a member of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, the Evangelical Council
for Financial Accountability (ECFA), and InterAction. Give with confidence.

For more information about CRWRC's Haiti earthquake response, go to:

http://www.crcna.org/pages/helphaiti_2010.cfm