Transitioning...
NEIGHBOR-TO-NEIGHBOR RESILIENT RESPONSE
TO EXTREME WEATHER
by Pamela Boyce Simms
At its best, transitioning
simultaneously honors the past, is keenly aware of what is emerging in the
present moment, and prepares us for a radically transformed future. We envision
a simpler, superb-quality future even as we sensibly prepare to navigate the turbulent
transformation. The message in the
present moment is clear. Frigid cold snaps, record-breaking heat waves, floods
of increasing frequency, and crop failures from either too much or too little
water are upon us now.
Neighbor-to-Neighbor Resilient Response is a collaboration of Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH),
Ulster and Dutchess County Interfaith Community, Community Caring Connection (C3)
People’s Reporter System, and Woodstock Time Bank. The program invites New
Yorkers to get through the uncharted narrows of accelerated extreme weather victoriously,
in community.
Resilient Response is about getting
to know our neighbors as we:
1. Purposefully care for
each other’s emotional wellbeing,
2. Implement a multi-tiered
non-emergency and emergency communications system
3. Train for mindful
preparedness with emergency management professionals
Get to Know Your Neighbors
Would you feel comfortable turning to the people who
live in closest proximity to you for help in an extreme weather crisis? Do you
have opportunities to really talk with your next-door neighbors and the people
living on your street?
New York residents have
witnessed time and time again that neighbors are the “first responders” in
extreme weather emergencies. Encouraging Ulster and Dutchess county residents
to know their neighbors is the first goal of Resilient Response.
Authorities, often arriving
woefully late in emergency situations, warn concerned citizens, “We’ve got
this. Stand down. Stay inside so you don’t make matters worse.” Yet residents
who used their chain saws to free up tree-blocked roads, who knocked on doors telling
others of services available nearby, or invited neighbors to share their
generators were the responders who relieved suffering after the recent superstorms.
Neighbor response
consistently proves to be highly effective during extreme weather crises while government
action is constricted by: 1) uncoordinated interagency information sharing, 2)
insurance liability issues, 3) inability to officially request assistance from
pivotal resources, such as faith communities, toward which residents invariably
and immediately turn.
Community members also discovered that government and
mega relief agencies measure success during emergencies in vastly different ways
than residents. Agencies may consider a low death toll a resounding success, while
householders declare victory when they don’t have to be without running water
or electricity for two weeks, which was the case for tens of thousands of New
Yorkers. Resilient Response addresses
the householder level of emergency experience.
A Resilient Response Working Group of representatives from local and regional Transition
Town networks, Ulster and Dutchess County interfaith communities, and
communications systems resource persons formed on January 20, 2014. The group
is developing ways (see below) to
collectively interconnect their networks on an ongoing basis to progressively
build resilient community bonds.
When Things Fall Apart We Tell Resilience Stories. Periods
of transition can be disorienting and anxiety producing as once reliable patterns
and institutions disintegrate around us. We can respond by embracing constructive
ways to face and work through the uncertainty and anguish together.
The Mid-Atlantic Transition
Hub (MATH), the Hudson River Playback Theater, professional NYS Storytellers,
and the Woodstock Timebank have partnered to create Resilience Stories, a storytelling platform. This spring, Resilience Stories will begin providing
intimate, café and salon storytelling entertainment forums throughout Ulster
and Dutchess Counties where residents can share stories and support each other
through challenging times.
Layered Non-emergency and Emergency
Communications System development is
also on the Resilient Response
docket.
The Community Caring
Connection, (C3) People’s Reporter System,
supported by MATH, addresses the ongoing need for better communication with
municipal agencies about unmet community needs. Once identified, needs will be
matched to appropriate resources, prioritizing community members in need of special
assistance.
The C3 database and
smartphone application allow anyone to note a community problem by cell phone (e.g.,
potholes, road erosion, dangerous trees, etc.), submit a report, and a picture
of the problem—switching into high gear for critical information during
emergencies. The Resilient Response Working Group invites
neighbors to map (non-emergency and emergency) community resources to build-out
the C3 clearinghouse.
The second tier of “grid-down”
emergency communications preparation supported by Woodstock Timebank members
and MATH involves the community development of satellite phone and ham radio
classes, clubs, and networks.
Preparedness Education and Training: New Yorkers who fended for themselves and
spontaneously took care of each other during the superstorms could be doubly
effective if they were emergency trained. An EPA-FEMA Training on “Community
Engagement after Natural Disasters” on January 27-28 initiated the Resilient Response Working Group’s process
of connecting their networks with training from relief agency resources. The
intent is to cultivate an informed grassroots cadre of “peoples’
emergency-preparedness leadership.”
Resilient
Response to Extreme Weather encourages
Transitioners, friends, and neighbors to come up to meet,
compliment, and supplement government emergency response at the grassroots
level. We are challenged to proactively demonstrate personal and collective
resilience.
"If we wait for the government it will be too
little too late; If we act as individuals it will be too little; but if we act
as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.”
–Transition Towns Co-founder Rob Hopkins
Pamela Boyce Simms is a Certified Transition Trainer
Mid-Atlantic Regional Transition Hub, of Transition US
Mid-Atlantic Regional Transition Hub, of Transition US
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 6:49 PM.
Filed under
climate change,
extreme weather,
Feature,
Transition Field Notes
.
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