New, innovative community-driven shelter initiative to benefit Turtle Creek and Upper Mon Valley communities
PITTSBURGH, July 14, 2006 – Individuals in the 26 towns comprising the Turtle Creek and Upper Mon Valley region will soon benefit from a new project that arms their community leaders with skills and tools in disaster response.
Thanks to American Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter leadership and a grant from The United States Steel Foundation, these communities prone to river flooding will have the equipment and training to respond more quickly and efficiently when it matters most in the critical minutes after a disaster.
The $80,000 grant from The United States Steel Foundation enabled the Red Cross to pre-position shelter equipment and supplies, and prepare community volunteers with the skills to start and manage their own shelter at a moment’s notice.
A shelter response that typically could take four hours may now take just 20 minutes with minimal coordination, a vital improvement to these communities that lie along Turtle Creek and the Monongahela Rivers, according to Red Cross management.
Red Cross’s "Community Shelter Project" will ultimately mean that a town such as East McKeesport can respond immediately -on its own- with the right equipment and personnel in the critical minutes after a disaster. Red Cross says this will not only save time, but could possibly save lives.
Red Cross partnered over the last several months with an all-volunteer committee of emergency management personnel and community leaders in the targeted communities, training 33 individuals in five basic Red Cross courses, most of the courses focusing on how to feed and shelter large numbers of people affected by disaster.
The Red Cross also purchased five trailers and stocked them with supplies to shelter up to 100 individuals each, or up to 500 individuals, total. The trailers will be housed at five secure locations – such as fire departments or municipal buildings – scattered across the Turtle Creek and Mon Valley area. In addition, the Red Cross placed five caches of shelter equipment in churches or schools in other communities, which will shelter another 100.
A new box truck, necessary for transportation of supplies, is part of the project, and will be permanently stationed at Red Cross’s community partner, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, in Duquesne.
"The project is community-led," explains Mike Adametz, Director of Emergency Preparedness for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter. "Red Cross workers teach community citizens what we know, give them the tools, and offer our continued support so that these neighborhoods and the Red Cross become true partners in disaster response."
The local Red Cross developed the idea for the project after September 2004 floods, when the need to simultaneously support numerous shelters in a four-county region became challenging.
"In the first days after Hurricane Ivan caused flooding here, we received 35 phone calls to help shelters," said Adametz. "Towns understandably rely on the Red Cross for sheltering, but it’s always a better benefit to the communities to have a system in place to sustain themselves until additional help from other agencies such as the Red Cross can arrive."
U. S. Steel, through its charitable United States Steel Foundation, was eager to fund this innovative "Community Sheltering" effort.
"The Red Cross demonstrated a need for improved disaster response equipment and training facilities in these communities," said James Garraux, vice president-labor relations for U. S. Steel and member of the board of directors for the American Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter. "We hope this project serves as a model for establishing similar shelters."
The project is noteworthy nationwide as the first of its kind nearing completion. The national organization for the Red Cross challenged its 800 chapters across the nation to spearhead projects like this after assessing what worked in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"Partnering with the community will always build a better model," says Adametz. "We started our project last summer –even before the lessons of Hurricane Katrina - so we were already one step ahead. It has felt good to see this project come together."
The Community Sheltering project will be unveiled Tuesday, July 18, at 1 p.m. at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, One North Linden St, in Duquesne, to emergency management officials, community volunteers, political representatives, and other project partners.
