Concept: Natural disasters, while infrequent, do happen in central North Carolina. Over the past 20 years ices storms, snow storms, local flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes have occurred in Wake and surrounding counties. There is a desire to develop a plan that can be modified/improved over time and that can be implemented in the near term to serve the members of the Raleigh Church of Christ and their immediate, local family members in the event of a disaster or weather event of significance that may cause personal injury or property damage. It may be possible over time to increase the scope of the plan. However, initially we will concentrate on making communication with our membership before and immediately after a situation of concern occurs. Using what resources that our membership possesses we will attempt to meet the needs of our membership during emergencies and natural disasters.

Leaders/Zone Captains: John Storms and Mac Safley will be responsible for coordinating and leading the overall plan and will work to keep the plan up-to-date. Our congregation has members that live over a multi-county area in and around Raleigh. Geographical “zones” within the general area where our membership lives have been defined. Volunteer “Zone Captains” have been defined for each of the zones. After, and in some situations before, a disaster, the Zone Captains will attempt to make contact with each of the members of their zone using the zone’s “calling tree” with the assistance of “branch contacts” – members in given zones. If the telephones are not working then physical contact will need to be made to assess needs. The Zone Captains will relay information to John and Mac for coordination between the zones.

Zone List: Each family has been assigned to a given zone. These assignments are summarized in the accompanying “zone list”. Please review the list to identify your zone.

Calling Trees: Using the latest information in our congregational directory and the defined geographical zones “calling trees” have been developed for each zone. Note the following responsibilities:

Leaders If a disaster is impending or actually occurs John and Mac will contact the Zone Captains and implement the calling tree. John and Mac will advise re the information that may need to be either relayed or collected. The primary purpose of the communication with the membership is to determine the status of each family and identify urgent needs for help/attention.

Zone Captains Upon receiving a call from John or Mac each Zone Captain will begin making calls to their zone members. The first family in each “branch” of the zone’s calling tree have been designated as “branch contacts”.

Branch Contacts The branch contacts will attempt to contact all of the families listed on their branch. They will pass along information from the Zone Captain and also collected pertinent information that they will then relay information back to their Zone Captain who will then relay pertinent information to John or Mac. If the telephones are not working then it may be necessary for the Zone Captains to attempt to make physical contact with the zone members. NOTE: Common sense must in all cases be exercised to minimize the risk to personal safety. In some cases it may not be physically possible to make contact with all members of a zone.

Zones: The zones and the corresponding “Zone Captains” are defined in the table below:

Zone Map A map has been prepared that should be of assistance in defining the boundaries of each zone.

Questionnaire: Questionnaires designed to help collect useful information have been made available to the congregation. If you are a new member or need to update the information originally submitted please contact either John or Mac for a new form. Please note that the management plan can be no better than the information that we have.

Disaster Assistance: The amount and quality of disaster assistance that our congregation can offer to our membership will be limited to our combined resources. Our plan will not meet all of the congregation’s needs such as helping to rebuild a house that is damaged by a falling tree. However, we would like to be able to make temporary home repairs and meet the immediate, emergency-based physical needs of the congregation. Housing and meals, depending on the situation, may be accomplished using either individual homes or the church building. This program is intended to be an immediate response, short term action to get those in need through the initial phase of recovering from a disaster.

Ideas: We welcome your ideas for plan improvement.

Thanks.

John and Mac

disastermanagement2A.doc
Date: 3/25/08
Revised: 1/17/09