In the end, disaster preparedness is ‘all about people’


Chris Herlinger/CWS | February 9, 2011

One community artist's interpretation of the village of Balai Nareh's evacuation plan, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo: Matt Hackworth/CWS

One community artist’s interpretation of the village of Balai Nareh’s evacuation plan, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo: Matt Hackworth/CWS

In the hills of northern Haiti, along the U.S. Gulf Coast, to the beaches of Indonesia and the mountains of Pakistan, people are better off because Church World Service makes disaster preparedness part of its ongoing work.

“They say, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,'” says Aaron Tate, CWS’s Haiti earthquake response coordinator.  “That’s why, even as we do major emergency relief and reconstruction work in Haiti after the earthquake, we are also trying to help communities learn how to prepare themselves for disasters large or small.”

It’s a philosophy that undergirds CWS’s work both internationally and domestically, and is based on a simple premise:  “We are concerned about human life, the community and the environment,” says Bonnie S. Vollmering, who oversees CWS’s domestic disaster response programming.  “A disaster is an opportunity for the community to address risks and vulnerabilities that could be prevented in the future by implementing risk reduction and mitigation plans.

“Once a community understands its risks and plans to reduce vulnerability, building codes may change, flood plain ordinances may be adopted, homes and appliances may need to be elevated or relocated,” said Vollmering.  “CWS members and partners assist survivors and the disaster-affected communities to become less vulnerable to disasters.”

In the United States, that means prevention and mitigation have become important parts of CWS’s recent webinar trainings for community leaders, continuing a tradition of learning CWS has performed for years in disaster-affected communities.

The work extends beyond education: following Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes that affected the Gulf Coast in 2005, CWS partnered with Terrebonne Readiness Assistance Coalition to help build five of the first-ever Louisiana Lift Houses, a sustainable housing solution for living on coastal land.

The Louisiana Lift House, a disaster-resilient housing solution in the state's bayous. This house survived Hurricane Ike without a scratch.

The Louisiana Lift House, a disaster-resilient housing solution in the state’s bayous. This house survived Hurricane Ike without a scratch.

Internationally, CWS’s disaster preparedness work is also making a difference.

In Periaman, Sumatra (Indonesia), CWS has worked with coastal communities on just-in-case plans that include creating evacuation routes and even installing signs that direct residents to sites safe from tsunamis.
indonesia disaster plan

“We’re trying to get the kids and community ready for this.  That way, when it happens, we can evacuate,” Ridwan Ali, head of village Balai Nareh.  “We feel safer because CWS has helped us.”

Elsewhere in Indonesia, disaster preparedness trainings were part of the CWS response after a powerful earthquake struck the Mentawai Islands last fall.  The trainings help communities prepare for disaster, manage risks, organize and manage disaster plans in accordance with international standards.

Similar work is being done in the Paraguay’s Chaco region, where CWS is helping Chaco commmunities have a voice in emergency response planning.

After months of severe drought continued to destroy food production and threaten human lives, the Paraguayan government declared a national emergency in the Chaco region in late 2008.  The government convened leaders of various indigenous organizations that participate in the CWS Chaco program.  CWS has assisted them in formulating and presenting their proposals so that emergency aid would reach and help their communities.

Villagers in Indonesia examine the evacuation plan they created with CWS help.

Villagers in Indonesia examine the evacuation plan they created with CWS help.

In contrast to the often inadequate government responses to emergency situations in Paraguay and other countries, the indigenous leaders felt their participation in the national plan did indeed help secure the adequate provision of water, food and health services in dozens of communities during the drought.  It also led to the organizations having a voice in forming a Chaco civil protection plan, as well as other policy issues affecting indigenous communities, the environment, public works and women’s issues.

That’s at a broad scale.  On a smaller, but immediate scale, one survivor of the October 2005 Pakistan earthquake who had been through a CWS-sponsored training said it helped him during a critical moment.

Mushtaq Ahmad, a teacher in Pakistan’s Mansehra area, was able to help save students and teachers at his school just as the devastating earthquake struck, thanks to what he had learned just days before in a CWS disaster preparedness teachers training.

Ahmad was in the classroom teaching when the quake hit.  He said he was able to quickly evacuate the majority of the children and teachers by applying the skills he had just learned.  “Because of the training, I was able to help save not only my own life but those of our students and fellow teachers,” Ahmad said.

Takeshi Komino, director of emergencies for the CWS Asia Pacific program, helped coordinate the CWS response in Myanmar (Burma) following Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.  Disaster risk reduction training and education was part of that response, and Komino noted that ultimately investing in disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness makes sense as a way to reduce the blunt effects of a large-scale disaster.

Why?  One reason: reducing the risks of disasters is simply good for the long-term development of poor countries.  It is less costly for countries prone to disaster, like Myanmar (Burma) or Haiti, if they take steps prior to a disaster to reduce risks and have things like evacuation plans in place.

“Investing in disaster risk reduction is much, much cheaper than waiting for us to respond after an emergency,” he said.

Of course, cost efficiencies aren’t as important as the simple maxim that “it’s all about people,” Komino said.  “Their lives are priceless….”

(With reporting assistance from Matt Hackworth, Sidney Traynham and Jan Dragin.)

How to help

Contributions to support the emergency response work of Church World Service may be made online or by phone (800.297.1516), or may be sent to your denomination or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.