Massachusetts Disaster Relief Summit Organizes Future Recovery Actions While Hurricane Matthew Lurks to the South

MANSFIELD: Massachusetts Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (MA VOAD), which consists of many of the Commonwealth's leading non-profit and religious organizations, along with its Associate for-profit and government disaster relief organizations, met for a Summit, Wednesday, October 5th at the at the St Gregory the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church in Mansfield, MA to better coordinate future disaster recovery actions as Hurricane Matthew's direction from the Caribbean was still unknown.

While most people are aware that local, Massachusetts (MEMA) and Federal Emergency Management Agencies (FEMA) work on getting our infrastructure back into working condition following storms, tornadoes and other disasters, less know that each state has organized non-profits and churches to work in coordination with emergency management to address the individual physical, emotional and financial needs of victims when their insurance cannot help.

The agenda of the summit that is below, changed abruptly as most MEMA representatives and some other MA VOAD members were in conference preparing for the potential of Hurricane Matthew hitting the Cape and Islands. Nonetheless, it gives an idea of the preparation that was put together during the Summit.

To clarify some of the agenda items below, a COAD would be a Community Organization Active in Disaster which is more local than a state VOAD and can include for-profit businesses and government agencies if it so wishes. COADs are important as local response comes before bringing in statewide, then national recovery efforts.

The break-out meetings covered two important actions of VOADs: Emotional and Spiritual Care and Donations Management. In the Emotional and Spiritual Care meeting, Rev. Fred Meade discussed the emotional devastation of people in West Virginia after flooding caused death and destruction of property. The presentation not only covered standard procedures in counseling victims but the necessity of helping the helpers who also get emotionally traumatized after assisting others over long periods of time.

Tom McQuarrie gave an overview of Donations Management in the other session as this activity becomes very complicated as unnecessary items are delivered with needed items and have to be stored, distributed and accounted for properly. In an ideal world, disaster relief donations would be in the form of money so that proper items could be purchased for the situation as opposed to getting winter coats for Florida hurricane victims or refrigerators for Eskimos. Water, of course, is almost always a needed item.

During the lunch break, food was provided by Eoin Lynch of Operation Barbeque and coffee and drinks by the St. Gregory church which was greatly appreciated.

Finally, the three board members of MA VOAD and their Communications Division Director, who is over disaster relief and recovery activities, did a "communications drill" which covered the entire flow of how what occurs before and after a disaster hits and how MA VOAD goes into a coordinated action to help people in need. Some of the activities performed by MA VOAD members during and after disasters can include tree and debris removal, flooded house muck-outs, food, shelter and clothing, assisting with insurance papers, animal rescue, home repairs, emotional and spiritual counseling and much more. These activities are listed on the MA VOAD Organization Chart on the "About" page of www.massvoad.org and is attached to this article along with a photograph of several of the attendees.

Some of the attendees of the Summit who are not listed in this article or the agenda below include St. Vincent De Paul Disaster Services, New England Southern Baptists Disaster Relief, Salvation Army, HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response, National Guard, MA Dept. of Health, MA Dept. of Elderly Affairs, MA Dept. of Disability Services, State of MA Animal Response Team, United Methodist Church, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Medical Reserve Corps, Norton Emergency Management, Mass. 211, the host of the event International Orthodox Christian Charities and hopefully, I didn't miss anyone.

October 5, 2016 MAVOAD SUMMIT

A G E N D A

10:00– 10:30 Registration - Opening Remarks-Sara Hamilton (Boston Cares)/Larry Rosenberg (American Red Cross), Co-Chairs MAVOAD

10:30-11:30 Scott MacLeod, MEMA Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Section Chief

“VOAD/COAD in MEMA’s response and recovery programs-How do the VOAD/COAD fit into MEMA’s response”

11:30-12:00 Visit Informational Tables – Information from VOAD Organizations

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch – Speaker during 2nd half of lunch

12:30 – 1:00 Tracy Rogers (Red Cross) - Andrew Morehouse (Food Bank of Western MA) -Western MA COAD “Building COADs"

1:00 – 2:00 Donna Nelson-Katie Halliday, FEMA Voluntary Agency Liaisons

“Long Term Recovery”

2:00 -2:45 Breakout Sessions

Room 1: Rev. Fred Meade (United Church of Schrist), Emotional and Spiritual Care

“Lessons Learned from West Virginia Floods”

Room 2: Tom McQuarrie, Adventist Community Services

“Donations Management-Building community capacity, public storage, volunteers, resource identification pre-disaster”

2:45-3:30 MAVOAD Exercise-“Communications”

Sara Hamilton, Larry Rosenberg, Kevin Hall (Churches of Scientology Disaster Response & MA VOAD Secretary)

Jason Sydoriak, (Team Rubicon & MA VOAD Communications Director)

3:30 Closing Remarks-MAVOAD Co-Chair, Sara Hamilton