Preparedness ‘best defense’ against any natural disaster

By Mickey Noah

With June comes a new hurricane season, with hurricanes such as Ike, which in 2008, wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast of Texas, including these boats in the Galveston area. A disaster relief expert at the North American Mission Board says preparedness is the best defense against any disaster, whether a hurricane, tornado, flood or even the current swine flu pandemic. Photo by Laura Sikes.

The first named tropical system of 2009 will be “Ana” when she reaches sustained winds of at least 39 mph. If Ana’s winds grow to 74 mph, she’ll become the first hurricane, and if her winds increase to 111 mph, Ana will be a major hurricane. According to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), an average season has 11 named storms, including six hurricanes with two of those becoming major hurricanes.

“Today, more than 35 million Americans live in regions most threatened by Atlantic hurricanes,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said recently. “Timely and accurate warnings of severe weather help save lives and property. Public awareness and public preparedness are the best defenses against a hurricane.”

But Mickey Caison, the “dean” of disaster relief at the SBC’s North American Mission Board (NAMB), says preparedness is not only for hurricane season, but a planning process families, churches and local Baptist associations should undertake in advance of any possible disaster – whether a tornado in the South, a flood in the Midwest, an ice storm in New England or even a swine flu pandemic.

“Families should be prepared in the event of any disaster that may isolate them for a period of time, knock off electricity or block roads,” says Caison, NAMB’s team leader for adult volunteer mobilization. Caison said families should develop a family disaster plan and put together a family disaster supply kit covering a minimum of three days.

The family survival kit would include one gallon of water per person per day; canned and packaged food; “comfort” food such as cookies, hard candy, sweetened cereals, instant coffee and tea bags; a first-aid kit; equipment and tools, including eating utensils; a battery-operated radio and flashlight with extra batteries; personal hygiene items; clothing and bedding; and special items like eyeglasses, copies of important family documents, cash, etc.

“Southern Baptist churches also need to prepare for disasters,” Caison said, adding that their leaders should make disaster plans in advance, create a communications plan for linking the church with its members during a disaster and in advance, build strong relationships with community leaders, such as The Red Cross, The Salvation Army and city and county emergency management personnel.

For instance, in building a disaster plan, churches can decide in advance if they want to be a SBC disaster relief operations center, a site for a feeding unit or a temporary living shelter for disaster relief volunteers.

“At the same time, their disaster preparedness plan will help them in ways to minister both to their church members and to the community. If they don’t have a plan, the church is just going to react to the situation,” said Caison.

“A lot of times in a disaster, we’ll call a church and ask if we can use their church to set up a feeding unit. But their response is, ‘We’ll have to call a deacons’ meeting or have a business meeting to decide.’ We in disaster relief don’t have time for that so we must go on to another church.”

Caison said such unprepared churches without plans lose a golden opportunity to position themselves, their ministries and their facilities in the community.

“In having a strong relationship with community leaders in case of a disaster – before the disaster strikes – the SBC church will have a seat at the planning table. Churches will be in on the planning, know what’s going to happen, and know how you can be part of the response. Your church then becomes a viable part of the ministry of disaster relief following a disaster.

“But all these decisions and relationships need to be made beforehand,” Caison said. “Community disaster relief agencies like the Red Cross or Salvation Army won’t have time to come to you after the disaster happens. And they won’t have time for you to come to them.”

Caison said churches that plan ahead for disaster response can use such opportunities for outreach in the community. For example, a church can partner with the Red Cross, Salvation Army and local emergency management to offer a preparedness training event for families – families who may not normally attend that church.

“The bottom line is that local churches are in a unique position to respond to individual needs in ways that no other organization or group can,” said Caison. “Churches can demonstrate the love of Christ as they meet the needs of disaster victims. Even spontaneous reaction to a disaster in the church’s community can be helpful if it’s coordinated with the efforts of other disaster relief agencies.”

Caison said NAMB’s disaster relief staff has developed comprehensive preparedness plans and checklists for families, churches and local associations to implement before disasters hit. The plans are available at www.namb.net/DR.

The NAMB disaster relief web site also includes a section on “Pandemic Flu Preparedness” – timely because on June 11, the World Health Organization officially declared the H1N1 or swine flu virus as a pandemic – the first pandemic of the 21st century and the first since 1968. WHO raised its pandemic flu alert to Phase 6 on a six-point scale. To date, there have been almost 29,000 infections reported in 74 countries, including 144 deaths. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has reported a total of 13,217 cases of the H1N1 flu, resulting in 27 deaths so far across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Many of the same issues for disaster relief apply to a possible flu pandemic, according to Caison.

“How do you minister to your members and the community when flu pandemics call for mandatory rules against congregating? How will we get food to people when they are quarantined at home?

“We’re still extremely concerned about a swine flu pandemic,” Caison said, “although it’s fallen off the radar screen for most folks now. But families and churches need to prepare for that as a potential disaster, too. The last time there was a major pandemic in 1918, it started in the winter, waned during the spring and summer, but came back with a vengeance in the fall. The reality is that next fall and winter, we have a high probability of significant flu.”

One church that is prepared for disasters, including a flu pandemic, is First Baptist Church, Cumming, Ga., which runs 1,000 each Sunday and is pastored by Bob Jolly.

“Since the swine flu outbreak, we’ve been emphasizing to our members that if we get into a pandemic situation, the most important thing our church needs to do is to stay healthy so we can serve our community,” says Jolly.

To hammer that message home, Jolly said First Baptist-Cumming recently held its first “No Handshake Sunday” during which members were encouraged to forsake handshakes in favor of the “holy elbow bump” as Jolly called it with a chuckle.

Jolly agrees that in the event of a flu pandemic, public gatherings would have to be cancelled. “We’ve told our people that sermons would be on-line and that our web page would be active and dynamic to communicate things they need to know. Our web page would also include links to government, CDC and NAMB disaster relief sites.”

The pastor said the most important thing Southern Baptists can do to be prepared for disasters is to continue to give their tithes to their church so the church is financially healthy to take on disaster relief.

“As Southern Baptists and their churches continue to give to the Cooperative Program, Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings, that helps keep our disaster relief infrastructure in place so we can be more effective when an emergency comes,” said Jolly.

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