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The Arc in Hurricane Sandy’s Path

In the last few days, all eyes have turned to Hurricane Sandy’s destruction of large portions of the U.S. East Coast. In the wake of the storm, affected areas will now begin to reassess, recover and rebuild.

We are reaching out to chapters in the 13 states most affected by the storm to find out how they and the people they serve fared. If you are with an affected chapter and need help, please contact Dee Dee Eberle, Director of Chapter Organizing and Advocacy, at Eberle@thearc.org or 202-534-3726. Or you can reach out via our social media channels – Twitter, Facebook, and The Arc’s blog. Please use the hashtag #TheArcRelief for any storm-recovery related posts.

Those of us lucky enough to have escaped unharmed may be looking for ways to help chapters recover and rebuild to ensure that they can continue to serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities especially in this time of need. We have activated The Arc’s Disaster Relief Fund, which allows us to take in donations from across the country, and quickly distribute them to chapters that need emergency resources to carry out their mission in the aftermath. If you would like to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families recover and rebuild chapter programs and offices, consider contributing to The Arc’s Disaster Relief Fund: Donate online now or simply send a check to The Arc’s national office at 1825 K Street NW, Suite 1200 Washington, D.C., addressed to The Arc Disaster Relief Fund. If you can’t make a monetary donation, we encourage you to monitor our social media channels to see if someone in your area posts a need which you might be able to fill directly. If you have non-cash resources that might be able to help a specific person or chapter, you can offer those to that individual or organization through our social media channels using the hashtag #TheArcRelief and be sure to post your location and how someone might respond to you. Keep in mind, The Arc CANNOT accept or distribute any non-cash donations.

As we learn more, we will keep you updated via our social media channels – Twitter, Facebook, The Arc’s main blog, and our new chapter blog, wearethearc.org, which chapters across our network can use to keep current with each other.