California non-profit ensures no Nebraska town is left behind to recover on their own

California wildfires brought Nebraska a hero.

That hero is Kimberly Gorehm. She’s spent the last week in the state providing relief to those who need it most.

Because she’s experienced the worst of it- being evacuated from her home because of wildfires- twice.

“When I see these disasters happen, it breaks my heart. I know they’re going to need help,” Gorehm said.

She founded a non-profit called No Town Left Behind.

They travel the nation and provide aid to small towns that don’t get relief from disaster aid organizations.

She said there’s many of those here in Nebraska.

“They are kind of left on their own. They’re in the cracks,” She said. “We have a big response organizations that go to bigger towns and nothing else is happening out here– so that’s our focus.”

After arriving in Nebraska about a week and a half ago they set up shop at First Baptist Church in Fremont.

The church, with a congregation ready to step up for their state.

“The deeper the water got the more we knew people were going to need help,” Judi Staab, a deacon with the church said.

Their community center was transformed into a warehouse; the congregation spending their days loading trucks and their nights building shelves.

So far they’ve sent supplies to 31 towns in Nebraska and Iowa.

“We’ve been about 500 miles out from Fremont, went all the way back to South Dakota and back to check in with the small towns and see what they need,” Gorehm said.

They were in Lynch a few days ago.

Gorehm said it’s the most devastated city they’ve been to and they had very little assistance until No Town Left Behind arrived.

“Just complete devastation. It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “You can see it in people’s faces, they don’t know where the rest of their town is, they don’t know what’s happened.”

But No Town Left Behind gets them help.

They’ve done it in 11 other disasters, and they’re already prepping for the next one.

But they never leave any community for good.

“We don’t stop communicating after the storm is over,” Gorehm said. “We help longterm and these people we meet in these communities become life long friends.”

First Baptist Church will continue getting supplies to affected towns.

To learn more, donate or get involved go to their website here:

https://www.notownleftbehind.org/