by Michael Karpman
Unique challenges face cities in helping children and families who have been displaced or otherwise affected by natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Lessons learned were featured in a recent NLC audioconference discussion led by Mayor Melvin ?Kip? Holden, of Baton Rouge, La., and George Haddow, adjunct professor at the George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management in Washington, D.C. The audioconference was sponsored by NLC?s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families.
Baton Rouge felt an enormous impact from the 100,000 evacuees who moved to the city in the wake of Katrina. In a very short period of time, 7,000 additional children enrolled in the city?s public school system.
To meet the increased educational needs, the city reopened two schools that had previously been closed. In some private schools, children attended in shifts to accommodate the number of new students.
Impact on Children and Families
?One of the things that I believe is very critical is that you have a holistic approach,? said Mayor Holden.
?You cannot only talk about education, but you have to talk about health care. There needs to be a component that extends transportation, a component that deals with child skills. We?re talking about trying to locate computer labs available to young people after they get home in the afternoon.?
Haddow noted that the increased stress on parents also affects their children. ?Parents are struggling to deal with the issues that they face ? housing, clothes, a job, income and schooling. It is sometimes difficult for children to understand why their parents are in such a ?stressed out? mode.?
?Counseling is very important for a lot of those children who saw this mass destruction,? said Mayor Holden. ?As they transition back into school, a lot of them will need long-term counseling, and there has to be a tracking mechanism to ensure that the impact of this hurricane does not translate into a lower performance in school.?
City Partnerships for Disaster Response
In responding to the disaster, the City of Baton Rouge formed partnerships with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), state government and a broad range of community and faith-based organizations.
The city is helping provide affordable housing by instructing its mortgage finance authority to give evacuees priority for housing, working to put blighted areas and adjudicated property back into commerce at a quicker rate and issuing a bond order to obtain financing.
One innovative approach involves working with a group of scientists and the Louisiana State University School of Business to build energy-efficient homes.
?With the high cost of fuel and skyrocketing utility rates, we?re trying to make sure that when families in new homes get their first paycheck, it doesn?t go right back out the door because they can?t afford the place where they?re living,? said Holden.
Although the city receives dollars passed from FEMA through the state, Holden emphasized the need to utilize available city services if state systems are overwhelmed.
?We started providing services in the shelters, helping people process unemployment insurance claims and get through paperwork to access services from FEMA and the Red Cross,? Holden said.
Key Lessons Learned
For individuals and families affected by a disaster, Haddow ? a former deputy chief of staff at FEMA ? recommended that the most important step is to register with FEMA and request a case manager. (Call 800-621-FEMA [3362] or TTY 800-462-7585, or visit http://www.fema.gov.)
Haddow also recommended that community officials develop personal relationships with these case managers and other people on the ground assigned to help families.
Beyond FEMA, ?your community should explore what local faith-based organizations, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other groups can do for you,? said Haddow.
?The first thing I would say is make sure you have a plan that?s viable, and have that plan evaluated by an outside person to give you an objective view,? said Mayor Holden. ?But in many cases you can?t try to do it by the book, because the book doesn?t answer everything. You?ll need to step forward and be innovative enough to put things in place.?
Preparation for Future Disasters
Haddow offered four steps that cities can take to prepare for future disasters:
? Bring everyone in the community together in a partnership around emergency preparedness. Include businesses, unions, universities, community and faith-based organizations, elected officials and other government officials.
? Have partnership members identify what risks face the community. Then, they must ensure that everyone in the community understands what those risks are and must create communication systems that get the information out through trusted local leaders.
? Identify what the partnership can do about these risks and how they can prepare citizens if an event should occur.
? Go out and implement a prioritized plan that will reduce impacts of future events, that will ensure every family and individual in the community is prepared and that will establish relationships with federal and state counterparts to be ready to perform.
Conclusion
?The time to solve the problems that happen in disasters is not after the disaster occurs,? said Haddow. ?It happens before the disaster occurs. I think communities have got to recognize that natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe. We have to start dealing with these issues now on an everyday basis as opposed to three days or a day after the event occurs.?
Details: To obtain a list of key websites for additional, related information and policy updates, visit www.nlc.org/iyef. Also, a transcript of this audioconference will be posted there in the next month. A limited number of cassettes are available by leaving a request at (202) 626-3014.