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CWS Hurricane Katrina Response -- Part III: Dedicated Support -- Building Sustainable Community Disaster Recovery Programs

Here, DRRL Johnson makes contact with a Laotian family in Bayou La Batre, AL, near the Mississippi border. Johnson's assessments of the small, fishing community, are a vital part of local response and recovery efforts. Photo: CWS

September 23, 2005

All over the U.S. Gulf Coast, "long-term recovery issues are looming large," says CWS Disaster Response and Recovery Liaison Tim Johnson, currently on site in southern Mississippi and Alabama. Communities dealing with their own damage and destruction, in some cases are also managing the needs of evacuees. Through Johnson's organizing work, and training by Presbyterian Disaster Response and United Methodist Committee on Relief following last year's hurricanes in Mobile, Ala., a newly formed long-term recovery organization was geared up and ready to handle emergency response and relief needs created by Hurricane Katrina in an effective and timely way.

"Linking the assets of existing community service programs, such as Volunteer Mobile and the related Mobile Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), creates a strong, deep pool of resources, both human and material, for disaster response," Johnson says. "Voluntary Mobile coordinates funding, volunteers and staffing for Mobile VOAD, a sustainable recovery organization managing all aspects of disaster"-- response and relief, long-term recovery, and mitigation/preparedness. The group even has its own permanent warehouse for kits, blankets, and other relief supplies."

In addition to the organizational capacity building Johnson provides, he has also helped identify and bring attention to the fishing community in Bayou La Batre -- mostly Asian immigrants from Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, whose homes and property sustained damage, and are now also jobless.

"It's tough there," says Johnson. "As of mid-September, 2-weeks since Katrina hit, there has been no electricity, all the schools are closed indefinitely, and this hinders the ability of adults to find work." In one case, Johnson alerted emergency management officials who brought ice and water to points easily accessible by foot, a critical move because most families have also lost their means of transportation."

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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