As hurricane season gets underway, Hertford County, North Carolina, is looking for new ways to attack an old problem: how to help disadvantaged residents better prepare for and respond to disasters. Hertford County is the first area to be selected as a demonstration site for the Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program (EPD), funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The county was selected because it has a history of disasters and a group of citizens, community-based organizations, and emergency management officials willing to work together to solve the problem.
The impetus for the EPD stems from a concern that community residents with the least resources suffer the most in a disaster. "Disadvantaged groups are no less informed about disasters than others in the community," said MDC's Dr. John Cooper, director of the EPD, "but the consequences of not being informed are more severe for them: they tend to live in low-lying flood-prone areas and in houses less able to withstand the forces of nature; they don't have the money needed to stockpile food and water or make other recommended disaster preparations; they struggle to evacuate; and they don't have the savings, insurance, or access to credit necessary for recovery. For these groups, preparedness is vital."
A joint initiative of MDC and the Center for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the EPD is geared to help disadvantaged communities in six states and the District of Columbia prepare for disasters. In addition to Hertford County, sites in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., will be chosen in the coming months. Each of the states involved in the EPD suffered major damages from Hurricane lsabel in 2003 and consequently received presidential disaster declarations.
"After a year of talking with emergency preparedness professionals in states along the Atlantic seaboard from Florida to Delaware, as well as people on the ground that have lived through disasters, we've learned that there are parallel systems at work before and after a disaster strikes," Cooper said. One system is the formal emergency management system and the other is the informal community system. Further, Cooper explained, these systems don't talk to each other, so the EPD's challenge is to integrate the two systems so that they work together. Emergency management officials need to partner with citizens and citizen groups to share information, identify populations with special needs, and target gaps in current plans and then find ways to fill those gaps by making best use of both formal and informal resources.
Guided by MDC, Hertford County has formed a 15-member taskforce to begin the work of blending the county's formal and informal disaster response systems. The group will examine the county's current disaster response capabilities, identify gaps, and find community resources to fill the gaps. In addition to the Taskforce, Hertford County Emergency Management and RoanokeEconomic Development, Inc., (the nonprofit arm of the electrical cooperative), are both official partners.
In their first two meetings, the Hertford team talked about their experiences during hurricanes Isabel and Floyd and looked at maps (prepared by CURS) of flood-prone areas as well as areas with concentrations of poor and disadvantaged people (those who are aged, sick, impaired or immobile) to see where the two overlapped. They then gave feedback about the accuracy of the maps. "Sometimes the extent of the hazard is not accurately mapped," said Cooper. "When FEMA says, 'here's the flood plain,' it helps to ask the people who live there, 'how high did the water rise in your community?' This gives us a more accurate picture of the vulnerability of disadvantaged groups."
After its second meeting, the team was devastated by the unexpected death of one of its most dedicated and enthusiastic members, Lee Demary. In memory of Lee, the team pledged an even stronger commitment to the planning work. "There was a lot of energy among the team and a desire not to repeat past mistakes," Cooper noted. At its third and most recent meeting, the team talked about the community's assets--the people, places and resources the community might call on in a time of crisis and how well the community is using those resources: for example, people in the community who speak Spanish; churches that could shelter or transport people during a disaster; people with first aid skills; people with boats; people who can cook for large groups; and people willing to donate their time.
"One of the things I'm noticing [about the EPD planning work] is the strengthening of the community's fabric. People are learning more about each other, making connections, and committing to the act of caring for the whole community," Cooper said.
Currently, EPD project consultants are interviewing a variety of community residents to gather information about how people experienced Hurricane Isabel--what kind of information they had about the storm and where they got it; how they prepared for the hurricane and other disasters; what they felt were the hardest things to deal with during disasters; and what they saw as the strengths as well as the challenges of their communities. At the team's next meeting in late June, interviewers will report on the results of the community interview process.