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FEMA Seeks To Bring Communities Together During Disaster Recovery
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS CAN HELP PICK UP PIECES AFTER MOTHER NATURE STRIKES
By Bill McLaughlin
A meeting of senior housing leaders, sponsored by FEMA on April 11, hit home for Ocean County residents a few days later.
A few days after a talk about how communities can come together to help respond to emergencies, New Jersey was hit by a nor'easter, flooding a number of communities.
If anything, it underscored the need to be prepared.
Ken Curtin, the New York-New Jersey FEMA coordinator, brought together representatives from the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and other aid agencies to discuss forming a COAD or Community Organizations Active in Disasters group. The meeting was held at Crestwood Village VII, Manchester.
Eighteen counties in the Garden State have COADs, including Mercer, Monmouth and Burlington.
Ocean County does not have one.
Members of the inter-Village Emergency
Management Council were asked
to participate in an open forum titled, "How Disaster Can Effect Our Lives"
and were told how they can help with emergency preparedness.
Michelle Madiou of Catholic Charities helps run the COADs in the three above-mentioned counties and is willing to help Ocean get organized.
Madiou explained that a long-term recovery plan following a disaster is lacking in many places. Long after the first responders have gone home, when even the Red Cross is finished with immediate needs, one question remains: Who helps those who need long-term aid?
Madiou told the three dozen or so in attendance that each county tailors its COAD to specific needs and how the group would be structured.
"Who will provide what services?" she asked. "A COAD helps prevent gaps in coverage or duplications of services. It's a way to organize in advance of a disaster."
One way to prepare, she said, would be to list special needs, disabled and young children so that in an emergency, responders can know what care is needed where. A special needs advisory panel could be set up in neighborhoods to canvass those needing special care.
A year after the disaster, like the flooding in Mercer County last year, the COAD is still providing relief, she said.
Russ Hendrickson, A Salvation Army representative, said COADs can help by providing leadership in a time of chaos.
Hendrickson told of helping his own relatives in Central New Jersey after flooding a decade ago. A truck came by about noon the next day giving out a sandwich, bag of chips and soda to each worker. An hour later, another truck brought the same thing: sandwich, chips and soda. The scene was repeated four or five more times that day. Grateful, he said, but confused. Better to have one group giving out food, another with first aid kits and others with goods to bag belongings.
"It's management of the confusion," Hendrickson said, "and shortening of the suffering. Nobody takes charge right now. There's a gap in your protection against disasters."
As an example, he said, if 10 charitable groups apply for $100,000 in federal relief grants with no analysis and no plan, the response is unlikely to match one application with a COAD-coordinated plan for $1 million.
"COADs don't help people but they increase the agencies' ability to help people," he concluded.
While Curtin did not discuss specifics of startup funding, he did indicate such information can be gleaned on the FEMA website or by contacting him at Ken.Curtin@DHS.gov or by calling 212-680-3664.
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