After weeks of helping with tornado recovery, the city of Bowling Green’s Department of Neighborhood and Community Services will begin to transition back to its normal activities and a new, long-term recovery group will focus on continued assistance.

Leyda Becker, the city’s international communities liaison, spoke Wednesday to members of the Community Partnership for Refugee and Immigrant Families, a community initiative to support the self-sufficiency of those individuals.

Becker said once the immediate response needs were met in the community, the department needed to start returning to its daily operations.

She has represented the partnership in tornado briefings.

Neighborhood and Community Services Director Brent Childers told the Daily News his department would continue to assist with tornado efforts while the transition to the new citizen-based group takes place.

“We are going to be transitioning to a long-term recovery group that is going to be a lot more community-representative,” Becker said in the meeting. “That group is going to be led by volunteer agencies that are contracted by FEMA to lead the process of long-term recovery. That process looks like 12 to 18-plus months of that and is walking individuals back to what was normal before the tornadoes struck.”

Specifically, Becker said leaders from the city’s refugee and immigrant communities are needed to represent those groups on the new committee.

“Unfortunately, to our knowledge the highest impacted area was at the neighborhood of Moss Meadow, Creekwood and Whispering Hills, which was very ethnically and culturally diverse. Many of our refugee and immigrant families have been gravely impacted as well as the rest of our community,” she said.

Becker said United Way of Southern Kentucky is doing long-term case management with families that also need assistance, and her department has been starting to make referrals for that long-term case management.

She also encouraged anyone who has not registered for FEMA assistance to do so.

“The FEMA deadline has been extended to March 14,” Becker said. “It’s imperative for our community that everyone who was affected by the tornado in some capacity registers. That’s going to determine what the city and the county receive in terms of federal funding to help us in our long-term recovery.”

Albert Mbanfu, executive director of the International Center, also provided an update on Bowling Green’s Afghan refugee population during the meeting.

Mbanfu said as of Tuesday, there were 347 Afghan refugees here, and fewer than 30 were staying in hotels.

“That is quite remarkable because there were moments when we had more than a 100 in a hotel,” Mbanfu said. “We have done a good job of identifying homes and apartments and moving them in.”

Becker said the Islamic Center of Bowling Green will host a welcoming dinner for the new Afghan refugees March 12.

The event will be an opportunity for the refugees to meet one another and better acclimate to their new home. A resource fair filled with community information will also be present at the event.

“In the midst of all the tornado recovery, we thought it was important for them to understand we were welcoming them to the community and we wanted to make sure they were connected to essential community resources,” Becker said. “Our hope is that we can bring together nearly all 350 arrivals at one time.”

– Follow reporter John Reecer on Twitter @JReecerBGDN or visit bgdaily news.com.