Governor’s Weekly Message: From Extreme Weather to Extreme Home Makeover, Delawareans Pulled Together

In his weekly message, Governor Markell talks about how Delawareans recently came together, first to help build a new home for a non-profit in Sussex County and then to pull together around Hurricane Irene.

“Whether it was the volunteers in the evacuation shelters I visited, the first responders working throughout the storm, or the neighbors cleaning up tornado and flood damage afterwards, the spirit of service that helps define our state – the commitment to making each moment matter – was clear,” Markell says.

The network reality show “Extreme Makeover” came to Sussex County earlier in the month to help drive the construction and capture for broadcast over 1,000 Delawareans, including the Governor and members of his Cabinet, volunteering their time and energy to build several buildings that would become the “Jusst Sooup Ranch.” The energy around the “extreme makeover” gave way to real concerns over extreme weather, as Hurricane Irene approached, then hit, the state.

“Just like so many volunteers did to start the building of that home in Sussex before the storm, when Irene approached, hundreds of thousands of Delawareans quickly pulled together, to protect their own homes and personal safety – taking action before the storm hit, moving quickly to clean up after it passed,” Markell said.

The state has consolidated into place information about recovery assistance that might be available to individuals and six different state agencies have assigned members to join the Governor’s new “Rapid Response Team” which is working to help businesses affected by the Hurricane. Storm and recovery information can be found at: http://governor.delaware.gov/information/storm_resources.shtml

About the Governor’s Weekly Message:

At noon every Friday, a new video message is posted to the Governor’s website and YouTube channel and is distributed to Delaware media outlets. Transcripts of the messages are posted and the audio version of the Governor’s message is available on iTunes as a podcast for distribution to personal MP3 players and home computers. The Governor’s weekly message is currently being carried on the air and posted on websites by various media outlets, and the direct link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndiyhWm8lgo.

Constituents, media outlets and others are free to link to the Governor’s video message on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/user/GovernorMarkell – or on his Facebook page – www.facebook.com/governormarkell – or on the Delaware State website at http://governor.delaware.gov/information/podcast_video.shtml. All are also invited to follow him on Twitter – www.twitter.com/governormarkell – and submit ideas through http://ideas.delaware.gov.