Highlights Report
Presbyterian Church USA
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

By Liz and Felix Bearden

The scenes below show some of the effects of the flood of September 19 and 20, 2009. All of these scenes were within walking distance of Good Shepherd.

The picture of the bridge was taken on September 21, after the Yellow River crested.  Note that water marks showing the high point of the flood remain.

Note that you can see just the roof of the house at the end of Larkview.

Note the watermark on the bricks on the house on the left.  Even though the water didn’t reach the main floor, the residents had to evacuate.

Following the flood  we were asked to attend an introductory meeting of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance organization on October 28, 2009 at St. Andrews to help Good Shepherd determine whether we might form our own
church based group to respond to events such as our recent flood during which 4 routes to the church
were closed. We were briefed by Harvey Howell who heads the San Antonio Disaster Assistance team
originally formed as a response to Katrina.

The Meeting, October 28,2009
The meeting was pretty much an introduction to Disaster Assistance and the Presbyterian Church’s part in the process. People in attendance included our host, Dr. Dave Kivett, Rev. Nath Briley of the Atlanta Presbytery Disaster Preparedness Response Team; leader-lecturer, Harvey Howell, President of SAPDA, San Antonio; PCUSA/PDA team members; Dekalb County Police emergency response team
About Disasters
This topic pretty well covered the terminology of disasters, and gave some of the alphabet soup of agencies involved.

• FEMA – Federal Emergency Management Agency, http://www.fema.gov
• SBA – Small Business Administration, http://www.sba.gov
• GEMA – Georgia Emergency Management Agency, http://www.gema.state.ga.us
• NVOAD – National Voluntary Organizations Assistance in Disaster, http://www.nvoad.org
• GAVOID – Georgia Voluntary Organizations Assistance in Disaster, http://www.gavoid.us
• PCUSA/PDA – Presbyterian Church USA/Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, http://www.pcusa.org/pda

Points that was emphasized throughout the meeting:

• Disasters are always local.
• Disasters are always unique.
• Responses are alway local

We learned that many organizations are in place to help, particularly immediately after the event, but
since all events are local, and local response is often critical, localized response is important to the
community. And, although many actions have to be immediate, knowing the makeup and the roles of
the relief organizations, and how we can best work together, is necessary. PCUSA/PDA works in
conjunction with the organizations listed above. These organizations are coordinated by GAVOID

Phases of a Disaster

We were surprised to find that we are actually between 5. Short-Term Recovery and 6. Long Term Recovery.
Emotional Measure

The chart above is a measure of the emotional condition of the people affected by the event with the stages labeled. Another surprise to us is that the cycle usually represents a year or in some cases even more depending on the event and the affected people.

“Light Our Way”
NVOAD has prepared a booklet, “Light Our Way”, to assist all “who carry out one or more of the myriad essential functions in the relief and recovery stages of disaster response” setting standards for spiritual care of all who have been affected by a disaster.

Presbyterians and VOAD
National and local VOADs are responsible for coordinating the activities of the volunteer organization’s response to an event. For the recent floods, GAVOAD, http://www.gavoad.us, Bob Tribble is responsible the coordination. Individuals, organizations, churches and the like must determine what part they will play in the recovery and make GAVOAD aware of that service. Then GAVOAD calls on such organizations when such a need is identified.

Presbyterians might fit in best as case-management personnel, who act as councilors to victims of
disasters. Their roll is to listen to the victims (who need to relate their story) and assist them in
planning and applying for aid in the most advantageous way. Using a process that has already been
established will alleviate the frustration some of the frustration and confusion caused by red tape.
To Illustrate:
Applicants must apply for and have a rejection from the SMA (Small Business Administration) before
applying for certain types of FEMA aid.
A lady lost almost every thing in her home, including a refrigerator, where she was keeping her food.
She applied for aid, then a local church gave her a refrigerator. The official who was sent to inspect her
home for losses noticed the new refrigerator and deducted the value of it from her grant. The lesson is
that the church should have loaned her the refrigerator so that those resources could have been used
elsewhere.

Coming Events
We are in the transition phase to the long term recovery phase. For those who are interested in participating, training must come fast and activities must start as soon as possible.

• Case Worker Training (2 day course) Cobb County, call 678-533-1443 for details.
• Case Worker Training (2 day course) November 11 & 12, 8AM at FEMA and GEMA office at 4360 NE Express Way, call 678-533-1443 to register.
• Recovery Tools and Training November 13, 8:30-4:40 at the FEMA and GEMA field office at 4360
  NE Expressway, Register at www.cwserp.org or call Debbra Coleman at 571-449-1606 for assistance.
• Gwinnett Planning session, December 7, 10:00 AM at All Saints Lutheran Church,  722 NW Rockbridge RD. Call Susan Zuber, FEMA 571-439-1355 for more information.

Contacts

• Bob Tribble, President of GA VOAD, 404-313-7878
• Sandra Price, Response Team, sandralprice@comcast.net 601-955-8275
• Rick Turner, Response Team, datwet3@yahoo.com 864-346-0707
• Harvey Howell President of San Antonio VOAD harveyhowell@earthlink.net 210-863-1015
• Milton Fulton, Response Team, mmfulton@bellsouth.net, 904-616-6348
• Susan Zuber, FEMA, 571-439-1355

Conclusions
The meeting was very useful to us for better understanding the full implications of a disaster and appreciating what Presbyterians are doing toward assisting others, as well as ourselves. This is a brief summary of what we heard and does not even represent the tip of the iceberg with respect to the information available on the internet.

What can GSPC do?
This presents an opportunity for us to become more involved in the community. We believe it is an opportunity that requires more “hands on” work meaning our members will be communicating with those affected more deeply by the disaster with material as well as spiritual aid. The plan we submitted earlier, the prayer requests cards, can be modified to ask if the recipient has received aid from agencies and needed our help through NVOAD or elsewhere to facilitate that aid.
One need, in which the Methodists and Lutherans are playing a major role, is to recruit and train “case workers” who assist victims that need assistance helping them through the necessary steps to make sure they get it. Note in the coming events above the scheduled training sessions for the case workers.