SUSAN KIM
United Methodist Communications
Hurricane season starts June 1 and runs through Nov. 20. That means it’s time for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to offer its annual “Top Five Preparedness Tips” gathered from the field. Even if you’re prepared, read on: each year brings new tips and information because, each year, we learn more.
#5. Do something to prepare.
This sounds simple, but when we asked Pam Garrison, disaster response coordinator for the Florida Annual Conference, about the biggest mistake she sees people making with regard to hurricane preparation, her answer was: “Just doing nothing.” If you’ve already prepared, convince another person to do something instead of nothing.
There are many resources to help you prepare yourself, your family, and your neighbors. Three of the best preparation guides are:
- Federal Emergency Management Agency: “Ready”
- National Hurricane Center: “National Hurricane Preparedness Week”
- American Red Cross: “Hurricane Preparedness”
#4. Figure out where you’ll go.
If emergency management officials tell you to leave town because of a hurricane threat, you should leave. “If I had to pick one aspect of hurricane preparedness, it would be this: have a personal plan as to where you will relocate should a hurricane evacuation be called,” said Greg Forrester, UMCOR executive in charge of U.S. Disaster Response.
Amelia Fletcher, disaster response coordinator for the Alabama-West Florida Conference, echoed Forrester’s words. “You need to gather what you need to have with you should you have to evacuate. Back up your essential information on a jump drive, for example. Take care of your papers and your medications.”
Why not check out—or better yet, ask the church youth group to check out—the latest smart phone apps to aid your evacuation? The American Red Cross has an app that gives the locations of local shelters. Many state emergency management agencies have smart phone alerts or apps that give information about road closures.
#3. Watch the forecast—and know how to interpret it.
The National Hurricane Center is predicting a “below-normal” Atlantic hurricane season, but that’s no reason to believe coastal areas will have it easy. In fact, Garrison believes that “hurricane amnesia” puts Florida at a high risk for hurricane damage. “We have not had a catastrophic storm in quite a few years,” she said, “so people forget that it can happen. They become complacent and they don’t prepare.”
Don’t rest easy with the words “below normal.” Hurricane Andrew—a Category 5 hurricane that devastated South Florida—occurred in the 1992 Atlantic hurricane season, which was forecast as a “below-normal” season.
#2. Prepare your church.
Have you heard of UMCOR’s “Connecting Neighbors Leadership Training Program”? It gives volunteer trainers the tools and information they need to guide the development of local church disaster-response ministries.
Even if your church is not ready for training, see tip #1 above: do something, not nothing. Just one example: Garrison said she has seen more churches involving their youth in hurricane preparedness. “A video inventory of your church buildings, room by room, should be part of your preparation, and I have seen young people take real ownership over that task,” she said.
#1. Know what to give—and what not to give.
In the wake of a hurricane, UMCOR will collect funds to help meet the needs—both immediate and long-term—of hurricane survivors. Be sure you visit the UMCOR website and sign up for text alerts so you can give in a timely manner. Another way of giving? Assemble relief-supply kits—particularly health kits and school kits—so that UMCOR’s warehouses can get kits into the hands of people who really need them.
The most oft-cited rule about what not to give? Don’t give clothes. They often become “the second disaster.”
For more about appropriate disaster donations, please see our story, “The Top Four Worst—and Best—Ways to Help after a Disaster.”
Money gifts may be designated to UMCOR U.S. Disaster Response, Advance #901670.
Last Updated on November 9, 2023