metro >> on the cover Awash In Water Flooded Detroiters find aid through agencies and synagogues. Stacy Gittleman I Contributing Writer CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 volunteer crews as large as 100 to help with debris cleanup and tearing out dry- wall and waterlogged flooring materials. McGilvery said his organization expects to stay in town for at least two weeks or maybe longer depending on the need. "A natural disaster like this is something new to us:' said Dan Trudeau of Jewish Family Service in West Bloomfield. "We are relieved to have the expertise of an organization like Nechama that could mobilize and put together tremendous relief efforts as quickly as they did:' Trudeau said within the first days fol- lowing the flooding, JFS received phone calls from nearly 50 community members, most JFS clients, experiencing flood-relat- ed problems and requesting help cleaning out their basements flooded with sew- age backups. Callers also reported loss of major appliances, furnaces and hot water heaters. Trudeau said he expects the num- ber of incoming calls to increase. "Our family case management supervi- sor said they had 10 calls in 45 minutes on Thursday afternoon:' Trudeau said. Most came from families in Oak Park and a few from Southfield and Huntington Woods. Last week, streets in these areas were deluged with huge piles of sour-smelling debris at the ends of driveways awaiting Suzanne Rosenthall's basement in Huntington Woods city garbage pickup. Rabbi To The Rescue Rabbi Robert Gamer, also of Huntington Woods, found it a challenge to care for his congregants at Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park while he also cleaned his fam- ily's flooded basement. In the days following the storm, he spent mornings in shorts and a T-shirt ripping out basement flooring and hauling a ruined couch to the curb before changing into more rabbinical attire to comfort congre- gants who recently lost a loved one as he officiated at a funeral. He also spent a great amount of time reaching out to his congre- gants, most living in Huntington Woods. According to Gamer, around 40 to 50 families of Beth Shalom had flooding. Prayer books in basements may have been water-damaged, so Beth Shalom is collecting prayer books to ensure they receive a proper burial in a Jewish cemetery rather than end- ing up in a landfill with other debris. "We were disappointed that some of our siddurs and mahzors were lost in the flood:' said Daniel Cherrin of Huntington Woods. "However, I am grateful to Congregation Beth Shalom and Rabbi Gamer for providing the valuable service of properly taking care of damaged prayer books. It provides a difficult but great lesson for me and my children in dealing with damaged religious items:' Gamer said, "It has been an emotional week. It has been hard on my young chil- dren. We lost some major appliances. We lost some wedding and baby pictures of our kids; but in the end, we are fortunate. There are many much more worse off than we are:' On Sunday afternoon, Gamer invited all to come together for a hot dog roast, right in his driveway. Beth Shalom supplied the hot dogs, drinks, chips and watermelon. (See page 14.) Rabbi Aaron Starr at Congregation Shaarey Zedek said 35 congregants impacted by the flood attended a Shabbat dinner at their shul. The CSZ Sisterhood as well as Quality Kosher Catering spon- sored the dinner. "Our affected congregants worked Awash on page 10 Taking The Plunge Wedding goes on while guests fight flood waters to arrive. I Roche! Burstyn Special to the Jewish News W With many, many guests stranded by flooding, the wedding went on. Groom Dov Steier of Toronto is escorted by Dr. Ed Hurvitz and Rabbi Shmuel Steier. 8 August 21 • 2014 JI4 hile thousands of people all over the Metro Detroit area were getting tied up in knots about their flooded basements on that fateful wet Monday, one young couple was preparing to tie the knot. Luckily, bride Aliza Hurvitz of Oak Park and groom Dov Steier of Toronto arrived at the wedding venue early in the day on Aug.11 to take wedding pic- tures. From within the Royalty House on 13 Mile and Van Dyke in Warren, father of the bride Dr. Ed Hurvitz, remembers watching the rain coming down in sheets. By 6:30 p.m., he says, they started getting messages that people were having difficulty getting to the wedding. After delaying the nuptials as long as they could, the young couple were mar- ried under an indoor chuppah, with only 75 of the few hundred invited guests in attendance, most of them immediate family. Hurvitz says, "I told everyone that because no one else was there, each person had to be like five people. Everyone got into it — you would have thought 200 people were there. Everyone was jumping, singing, dancing. When the newly married couple entered the hall after the chuppah, everyone gave it their all. It was so beautiful." Some of the band members were unable to get through the flooding, so one of the groom's friends joined the band for the night. The real story came later, hearing about the effort people went to to try and come to the wedding," Hurvitz says. Taking The Plunge on page 12