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Hurricane Sandy Update #29
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Point Pleasant Presbyterian Church
| Monday, January 14, 2013
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Greetings!
 I'm recalling something I heard from one of the very first Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) National Response Team members who came through here, just days after the hurricane. "Disasters are messy," he said, "but you can count on one thing: little by little, things will get better every day."
It sounds like a perfectly obvious thing to say. Of course disasters are messy! But it's actually a hard concept to grasp. It's hard because there's something in us that resists chaos, that seeks to find order wherever we can: even if we have to impose it falsely, where it doesn't yet exist. As we proceed through our recovery from Hurricane Sandy, the temptation is strong to start saying, "It's OK, we're getting over it."
Easier said than done. Recovery from a disaster of this magnitude is a matter not of months, but years.
I've sensed an eagerness among some church members to put the disaster behind us, to move back into normal mode and resume pouring our energy into regular church activities. Unless our own home was wrecked, it's very possible, as we near Day 80, to simply avoid driving through certain neighborhoods and thereby fool ourselves into thinking it's all over. Even along many streets that once were flooded, the piles of debris are long gone. Because most of the remaining damage is internal - and therefore invisible - the houses still look pretty normal from the curb.
There's a well-known commercial disaster cleanup service whose advertising slogan is: "Like it never even happened." Would that restoring our communities were that easy! Would that we could just snap our fingers and will all the scattered pieces of our lives back into their former places, like Mary Poppins cleaning up the Banks kids' bedroom!
 The thing that's hard to grasp is that Hurricane Sandy has already changed our communities and our lives: and things will NEVER return to normal again. At least, not the same normal we used to know. There's a new normal on the rise. Many of us are finding, as we live into it, that it's not such a bad place to be.
Because we are the Church of Jesus Christ - and therefore pledged to listen for cries for assistance around us - we can't just turn inward and pursue business as usual. It's not possible to simply resume offering programs for the benefit of our membership and imagine that mission begins and ends with signing a check for some agency laboring far, far away.
Like it or not, mission has arrived on our doorstep. I'm convinced God is calling us to respond.
We can't be all things to all people, of course, so it makes sense to focus our mission outreach efforts, striving to do one thing exceptionally well. Because we're Presbyterians, there's a very clear choice in that department: offering accommodations to visiting volunteer work teams.
In the world of disaster relief, volunteer hospitality is the Presbyterian stock in trade. As a denomination, we know how to do it. We also know that efforts expended in welcoming and meeting the needs of volunteer workers are multiplied many times over in terms of effectiveness.
Most of us will likely do more to rebuild our communities by seeing to the accommodations needs of short-term volunteers than we could ever do on our own.
In this Update, I'll try to answer questions some of you are voicing about what's ahead.
In Christ's love,
Carl
The Rev. Carl Wilton, Pastor |
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Where We Are on the Graph
FEMA has a well-known graph that depicts the emotional ups and downs of disaster survivors over time. You'll see that, on the graph, the moment of impact (the hurricane's arrival) is kind of a low. No surprise there. Then, after the storm ends, emotions track upwards for a time, as the adrenaline flows and neighbors band together and heroically help neighbors with the initial clean-up. There's a sort of elation folks feel in those early days, as communities of near-strangers work side by side and become friends.
But then a new reality sinks in: the awareness that full recovery is going to take a very long time. The chart below illustrates that. Just look at the largest piece of the pie, and you'll see it's long-term recovery.
PHASES OF RECOVERY
Now, go back to the graph at the top. Notice how big the area called "disillusionment" is. Observe how steep is the decline.
That's the spot where we now find ourselves, friends. The adrenaline-rush of the initial response can no longer sustain us. Disillusionment is setting in and emotions are now in a virtual free-fall.
It should be no surprise that now is the time when tension between people is on the rise and conflicts break out, often without warning. Some responses to these conflicts seem barely rational. That's because they're typically more about emotions than facts.
We do well to be gentle with each other in these days, and seek to be exceptionally understanding. The transition from short-term to long-term recovery is a tough one. None of us are exempt from those emotional stresses. We're all going to have our low points and times of anxiety. The trick is to uphold and support one another, as we do.
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Frequently-Asked Questions About Volunteer-Hosting Ministry
So, what is it we're getting ourselves into, as we move bunk beds into the Education Annex (as happened over the weekend, thanks to some hard-working volunteers, and a few members of the Point Beach High School Football Team)? Here are some answers to frequently-asked questions...
1. This process seems like it's moving more quickly than we can handle. We don't have all our volunteers in place yet, and the beds are already here! Shouldn't we slow things down a little?
We really can't. A number of things need to fall into place before our hosting program will be up and running, and they may not all happen in sequential order. PDA arranged for the beds and mattresses. They were given to us courtesy of the U.S. Army, who were renovating a barracks at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, as well as the Salvation Army, who trucked them up here at no cost to us. We needed to move quickly to get them here before the Army found some other place to dispose of that good-condition surplus equipment. Because the price is right (they were free), we didn't want to let that opportunity pass us by.
At a recent PDA training conference, one of the speakers likened the start-up of a disaster recovery ministry to building a plane while it's in the air. Some aspects of the start-up seem to defy logic, but somehow all the pieces do fall into place.
2. A second Lend A Hand Group is coming next week (the week of January 20th). We hardly seem ready to welcome them. Isn't that too soon, as well?
Lend A Hand is an unusual volunteer group. They're highly organized, experienced and unusually self-sufficient. They bring air mattresses with them so they can sleep even in places that have no beds. They have their own tool truck.They bring their own construction managers and can do their own project plans, virtually on the fly. We're actually learning a lot from them, as we observe how they do things.
3. How can there be enough work for these groups to do, if the church is making announcements asking people to refer us to neighbors in need of help?
Remember what we were saying: "Disasters are messy"? Ocean and Monmouth Counties didn't have long-term disaster-response structures in place, and are now scrambling to get those groups up and running. There's a tried-and-tested, well-established organization chart of various subcommittees that will eventually be overseen by those county-level groups. Right at the moment, though, those boxes on the organization chart are only partly populated (although things are changing daily). We're going to be handling some tasks by ourselves for the next several weeks, as best we can, that very soon will be handed off to the county Long Term Recovery Committee (LTRC). In the future, subcommittees of the LTRC (and, every likely, employees hired by those subcommittees) will perform case management (qualifying clients financially) and construction management (working with homewners to find out what needs to be done and what tools and equipment need to be in place). 4. I look around town right now, and things don't look so bad as they did back in early November. Most of the debris has been cleaned up, and many of the homes that were flooded - viewed from the curb, anyway - don't seem to be in such a sorry state. Is all this really necessary?
There's absolutely, positively no doubt that it is. John Robinson, the director of PDA, recently shared an eye-popping statistic: the property damage in Ocean County as a result of Hurricane Sandy has already exceeded the total damage to THE ENTIRE STATE of Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina. One county. Our county. As much damage as an entire state. We NEED to be doing this. And so do a lot more churches and non-profit organizations that will be following our lead, and will likely sending people here to observe our hosting set-up and see how it's done. 5. Are we really going to have enough groups eager to travel here, especially in the cold weather, to do work?At last count, the PDA National Call Center in Arkansas had over 175 volunteer work groups stacked up, waiting to be booked for specific dates - and all that before a single Sandy Volunteer Village is open for business. Some of those requests are for dates later in the year, but other groups could come here on pretty short notice. Several Pennsylvania presbyteries (other than Carlisle, which is where Lend A Hand is based) have contacted us directly, asking us to hold dates for their volunteer work groups. 6. How can the Session make a decision about where the showers should be installed (using our $25,000 Robin Hood Foundation grant) without having first gotten building inspectors in here?
Another example of disaster messiness. The Session will vote to approve their most desirable location, then we'll concentrate on getting the inspectors in here as soon as possible, modifying plans accordingly. Trust us, we're not going to do anything illegal. The town has a powerful incentive to move quickly on this - and to be flexible with approvals generally - because every hour of volunteer time expended in a given community, and properly logged and reported to FEMA, can be converted to around $20 worth of loan forgiveness for the town. That's cash money for local government. It's a win-win for everyone. As we host volunteers, we're not only aiding homeowners in their recovery, but are also indirectly aiding the municipalities round about in their recovery. But even so, we can't call the building inspector in before we have all the information from the Session that we need. |
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The Bottom Line
So, what about the bottom line? How much is this Volunteer Village thing going to impact the church's budget?
The quick answer is; "Nothing." The Robin Hood grant will cover shower construction. It's also a long-established practice for Volunteer Work Groups to pay a per diem fee of $20 to $25 for accommodations to the host church. If the church is providing food, then the per diem fee will be set high enough to cover this cost.
Per diem fees will also cover additional hidden costs, like Christian Education Annex building utilities, repairs and cleaning.
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High-Level Officials to Be Here for Tuesday's Session Meeting
As the Session meets on Tuesday, January 15 at 7:00 pm to discuss the question of shower placement, there will be several high-level officials present to participate in a panel discussion of the importance of short-term volunteer worker housing to recovery efforts - which is, at this time, one of the most serious worries officials have about keeping the Sandy recovery moving forward. If there's too much lag time involved in getting Volunteer Villages like ours opened, everything else is going to bog down.
Anyone who's interested in learning more is invited to come to the Education Annex on Tuesday from 7:00-7:45 for the panel discussion. We expect that the following guests will be participating:
Cathy McCann, President of New Jersey VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters)
Susan Marticek, Voluntary Agency Liaison for FEMA
Joan Otto Ott and Ben Pawley, two members of PDA's National Response Team (who were also with in worship at 11:00 this past Sunday)
Rick Turner, PDA's national Director of Volunteer Hospitality
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Who's Who In A Volunteer Village 
"Volunteers?" you may ask. "But our usual helpers are feeling tapped out, and some of them are preoccupied with their own home repairs!"
As the chart indicates, it takes a relatively small number of local volunteers to run a Volunteer Village. Most of these roles are interchangeable, as well, meaning that fresh helpers can come in with each new hosting week - so "the usual suspects" won't be flirting with burnout.
There are no overnight stays for local volunteer hosts, either, as there are with Interfaith Hospitality Network hosting.
Please note that some of these roles are not filled by people from our church. We're not in this alone! Representatives from two subcommittees of the county's Long Term Recovery Committee (Case Management and Construction Management) will play an important role (once they get organized), as will the Volunteer Work Group members themselves.
The experience of churches hosting Volunteer Villages in other locations, in the past, has been very positive. Members of the host church find it a rewarding experience to get involved - especially as they interact with the visiting workers, who are typically enthusiastic and talented leaders in their churches back home.
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Hopeful Plans
"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."
Jeremiah 29:11
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PPPC Hurricane Response
HURRICANE SANDY RECOVERY COORDINATOR
Peter Farwell
(908-675-7287) is serving as our church's Hurricane Sandy Recovery Coordinator, serving as the main communication person for our recovery efforts and representing our church at coordinating meetings with other churches and non-profit agencies.
Very soon, members of the Board of Deacons will be attempting to contact each church member or family by phone, just to make sure they're OK and to find out if there's anything we as a church can do to aid them in their Sandy recovery. If you get a message on your voicemail from a Deacon, please do call that person back. It's just a quick call to check in with you, and will really help us in our efforts to reach out to the entire PPPC community.
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More Information
FACEBOOK GROUP
is a good place to keep up with your church friends, as they post messages about how they're getting along.
HOW TO REACH US
In the event that any of you are aware of anyone the church may need some help recovering from the storm, please feel free to email me, or call me either on the church line (732-899-0587) on our landline at the Manse (732-899-4858) or on my cell phone (908-910-5360). Associate, Linda Chase, may be reached at the church number or on her cell (732-232-5007).
FEMA INFORMATION
FEMA's local relief center has moved to 270 Chambers Bridge Road, Brick. There's also one at the Bay Head Fire House on Bridge Avenue. Now that Bay Head is open again to regular auto traffic, that center is a good option because it's likely to be less busy than the one in Brick.
Registering with FEMA is the first step to receiving the services and help the government provides. The application deadline has now been extended to JANUARY 30, 2013. Register today, even if you're not sure what help you may qualify for. You'll be glad you did!NEW JERSEY 211's RELIEF AND RECOVERY ASSISTANCE GUIDEThe downloadable New Jersey 211's Hurricane Sandy Relief and Recovery Assistance Guide is the place to go for all manner of Hurricane Sandy recovery resources.PERSONAL COUNSELING SUPPORTCall one of our pastors, or the Mental Health Association of New Jersey's Hurricane Sandy Hope and Healing hotline: (877) 294-HELP (4357)OPERATION HOPE, FEMA-APPROVED FINANCIAL COUNSELINGCall toll-free: (877) 592-HOPE (4673)
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