The Southern Maryland Association of Realtors (SMAR,) the Maryland Association of Realtors(MAR )and Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MRIS) are among the Realtor service organizations providing disaster relief efforts for the homeowners and businesspeople whose properties were wiped out by the F5 tornado that tore through the town of La Plata last week.

"I have never seen anything like it in my life," says Rose Crowley, president of the SMAR. "It's how I would imagine La Plata to look if a giant bomb was dropped on it. It's a blessing it happened on a Sunday evening. The number of fatalities could have been much higher had everyone been at their jobs."

According to Crowley, the tornado which ripped through the community Sunday April 30th, 2002, was reported by The National Weather Service as one of the most powerful tornadoes ever to hit the East Coast.

"Four people died. Two hundred families were rendered homeless, and 75 percent of all the businesses in La Plata no longer exist," says Crowley. "Over $100 million in damage was incurred across the Charles and Calvert Counties in rural Southern Maryland."

Crowley spent the next day touring relief shelters with Jann Clark, the CEO of SMAR.

"We were stunned to realize that the twister traveled less than a half a mile south of our Hughesville headquarters building destroying several homes, but it did not disrupt one tree on our lot," says Crowley. "Our Association was very fortunate."

Other Realtors weren't.

Baldus Real Estate's La Plata office was demolished, according to Crowley. Bonnie Baldus, the owner's niece and an agent with the firm, was trapped in the office's debris, but was later rescued uninjured, says Crowley. But when she went home, she found her house in ruins.

Other association members, including SMAR's treasurer, Paul Chiriaco, and legal counsel Chuck Bongar, suffered property losses or damage.

Mike Manning, broker of Manning Real Estate, also lost his entire office. "The first story of his building was intact, but the second story was gone. Officials condemned the building shortly after Manning was able to remove his files, accounting records and business equipment," says Crowley. "Remarkably, none of his losses had anything to do with water, as one might expect, since it didn't rain a drop through the whole ordeal."

While these and other brokers businesses were harmed by the tornado, they had adequate insurance coverage, says a thankful Crowley. But that didn't mean they still couldn't use some help.

That's where David Charron, CEO of MRIS jumped in to help.

"Two of our members and their firms and buildings were destroyed and a number of agents were displaced," says Charron. "We have offered to supply them with any and all resources to get them back on track, from loaner PCs to helping them establish communication services more quickly as they rebuild their offices."

Charron made a trip to see the devastation first hand. "It was unbelievable," he says. "They certainly don't need rubberneckers down there right now. So we figured a way to help, share our communications skills, where we wouldn't be in the way of other relief efforts."

The community has authorized the creation of a temporary mobile city in La Plata for the displaced business community at reasonable fees. Those businesses which can not collect insurance payments will be subsidized by sponsorship by other businesses. They hope to have this mobile city in place within two weeks.

Meanwhile, SMAR created a disaster relief fund for homeowners. According to figures supplied by the Catholic Charities and the Department of Social Services (DSS), SMAR executives learned that over 120 homes were totally destroyed, 297 suffered major damage and many are uninhabitable, and 417 homes suffered minor damages, but remain livable.

"Social Services expects that over half of the 297 damaged homes will be condemned by the end of the week after the FEMA inspections are completed," says Crowley. "Housing is the most critical issue to the DSS and they have asked for our association members' help with placing families."

Tragically, Southern Maryland had already been wrestling with a severe housing shortage prior to the tornado's devastation, especially for low-income residents. "We all know how desperate the housing situation is in our area for regular relocating home seekers, let alone for Section 8 tenants," says Crowley. "DSS promised to streamline the Section 8 voucher program and to lighten up on the complicated requirements put upon landlords who do agree to rent to DSS clients."

Realtors will pitch in by reporting any known rentals to the agency, as well as setting up a Web page with summaries of all available properties for local agencies to access.

"On Tuesday morning, a special account was opened where SMAR is depositing relief funds for Southern Maryland storm victims," says Crowley. "Remarkably, without even getting the word out that we had launched a relief fund effort, we received and deposited several donations!

"This confirms the fact that the Realtor community always stands ready and able to quickly help our neighbors in need!" she says.

"Both Bill Neary, president of MAR and Mary Antoun, MAR CEO, contacted us and offered MAR assistance," explains Crowley. "Mary has written to NAR requesting that some portion of the remaining 911 Housing Funds be reassigned to our SMAR Disaster Relief fund. We have contacted every other local Association in the state to ask for donations and assistance with communicating information on the fund to their membership. Many boards have already pledged funds, but can not commit to specific amounts until their individual Boards meet for a vote. Most Boards have meetings scheduled for next week, so donations should be forthcoming."

Crowley plans to personally attend the MAR Board of Directors meeting this week to request a donation directly from them.

"At this time, the Executive Committee has not yet decided exactly how to distribute the funds, as our options have not been thoroughly researched," says Crowley. "We recognize that SMAR does not have the staff necessary to directly interview applicants and process donations to a multitude of applicants; therefore we are planning to select an organization or organizations to distribute the funds on our behalf."

The organizations chosen will channel donations directly to Southern Maryland disaster victims.

Editor's note: The SMAR Disaster Relief fund information has been posted on the homepages of SMAR (www.somdrealtors.com), MRIS (www.mris.com) and MAR (www.mdrealtor.org). Donations are also being accepted via Visa and Master Card through Ronnie Miles at SMAR headquarters., 888-340-8727 or 301-870-2323.