Disaster Relief

When The Next Disaster Arrives

The occurrence of disasters in our world, our country and our state are realities to which we are exposed far too frequently and unexpectedly. Most disasters are far away and we can empathize with and pray for the victims, perhaps make a financial contribution or possibly even volunteer to go to assist in meeting immediate needs.

Our awareness and response changes when the disaster touches our community. Once we determine our loved ones and neighbors are safe, and have food and shelter, our view turns outward to those in our community who have been less fortunate. Our compassion for those in great need prompts a desire to help. Some times the determined response of a few individuals is adequate to meet the need – but many times it is not.

The needed response may not come that first or second day or even during the first week. Disaster response officials caution that local fire-rescue-police personnel may not be available for 72 hours. Little or no help will be available on the periphery of the disaster since major response resources concentrate in the prime disaster area. What happens then? Who do you turn to? Can you find anyone to help?

Plan Ahead

To avoid being caught in a situation following a disaster with acute needs and few resources there are some actions we can take prior to the event that can ease the hurt and stress.

Personal Family Preparation

We each have a responsibility to prepare as completely as we can for our family’s needs following a disaster. We begin to hear the admonitions to prepare as hurricane season approaches. Obviously the best time to prepare is when there is no imminent threat.

Experienced disaster response leaders suggest preparing to sustain yourself family for 3 – 5 days. You’ve probably heard the message – GET A KIT….MAKE A PLAN…STAY INFORMED

These catch phrases are designed to get our attention but they have substance behind them, urging preparation BEFORE THE DISASTER. Detailed information to assist you in taking those three simple but critical steps is easily available to you. (See the Red Cross, Homeland Security and FEMA web sites)

Working With Your Neighbors

Make plans with nearby neighbors to assist one another and share resources. Determine who has what resources that might be shared. Assess situations that have obvious risk such as persons with disabilities, elderly, infants, pets and property access challenges. Planning for these situations ahead of time can mitigate some of the risk.

Beyond preparing for family and neighbors to meet a disaster, we can help further by working together through our churches.

Church Disaster Plan

Some churches have plans in place that will enable them to respond in a timely manner should a disaster strike their community. Others have groups or individuals within the church to whom leaders will turn should such an event occur. And some churches may not have given much thought to what their organized response might be (or need to be) at such a time. This initiative is intended to help us move a step or two further along the path to preparedness should we be confronted with responding to a disaster in our community and ministering to those in need.

Your church’s plan will make a response more effective by:

1. Identifying who (by name ) will coordinate the response in your church

• Determining what capacities, abilities and resources are (and what are not)available in your church such as:
• 4 wheelers
• chain saw expertise
• generators
• food prep (people & places)
• vans
• trucks
• drivers
• farm tractor owners
construction skills:
• carpenter
• electrician
• plumbing
• specialty equipment (i.e. graders, wreckers, fork lifts – log skidders)
Identify personnel skills:
• Doctor
• nurse
• first aid
• trained counselor

2. Knowing what to do and what not to do:(i.e. tree removal, medical )

3. Knowing who (agencies) to call for assistance (a directory of disaster service resources is posted on the Dover web site)

4. Following accepted disaster response guidelines by not collecting material until a need has been established and destination identified.

5. Identify by name, address and specific need those in your church and community who have special needs –disabled, elderly, chronic illness. Plan for their care (web sites have sections on help for special needs persons).

Lead your church to organize ministries that will support disaster response such as food pantry, clothes closet; generator loans, plastic sheeting, etc.

Network With Community Churches

The logical next step is to identify churches (not just Baptist)in your community that have disaster plans in place or are interested in developing a plan. Establish working relationships with those churches to combine resources for a more effective response.

Identify churches that have facilities and parking areas large enough and could become disaster distribution stations for the community. (Red Cross or home grown)

What Organization is Needed to Support an Effective Network?

Organization is essentially church(es) driven – the simplicity or complexity of the organization is determined by the needs of your church’s and those you network with.

The difficulty in maintaining a reasonable level of readiness over months or years with no disaster must be considered.

A Dover coordinator will serve as a clearing house to share information and ideas with the churches. We especially want to share assessment and response schemes that your church has used with success.

A coordinator or contact person for each of the 5 Dover areas will be enlisted to give an occasional update to churches in the area.

Resources

A “Getting Started” packet will be available to each church that determines to formalize their disaster response preparation. Items will appear occasionally in the Dover Diary related to disaster preparation and response. The Dover web site features a section with church and family disaster response information.

The local Red Cross chapter will provide community disaster speakers for your church as you develop your plans. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management web site (see web site list) has a listing of Emergency Managers for each county.

Click here for a list of resource websites.

Beyond Self Help…

The American Red Cross is mandated by Congress to respond to US disasters and to coordinate that response. The Salvation Army and Virginia Baptists’ (Southern Baptist) are early responders. Government agencies and other non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) provide a variety of responses. See the accompanying list of web sites that individuals and churches can access.