[StBernard] #7, #8, #9

[Westley Annis]

Here are #7, 8, 9 to add to the list in the open letter to the next
community to be hit with disaster.

#7   Remember the Serenity Prayer from the moment the crisis begins, 
"the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the
things we can, and wisdom to know the difference."  Local leadership has a
limited span of control, beyond which, it will not be the decision of local
leadership so they cannot effect these changes on their own terms. Excercise
restraint when responding to the crisis. Recognize that the decisions that
will be made regarding funding to "buy-out" property owners and FEMA funds
to mitigate future damages by acquiring whole neighborhoods is not solely in
the hands of local government.  It can be said that in other situations
these funds are sometimes possible under various federal and state programs,
but how much funding, what the criteria is, and how long it actually takes
is very complicated and is notdictated by the local leadership.  More often
than not, your community will not receive enough funds to do everything on
the local wish list, your community will not always meet the criteria to
receive it, and it will take more than a year for it to get to the local
leadership to do anything with it.  Implying that there will be an abundance
of money such that everyone who wants to walk away and receive pre-crisis
value so their property becomes greenspace or a right-of-way for some public
purpose only paralyzes the community which will expect this to happen
quickly and apply to everyone who wants it.

#8  Local leadership must get everything in writing at the proper level of
authority. FEMA representatives come and go weekly during the crisis. Many
are not FEMA staff, but consultants and contract employees hired by FEMA for
the crisis. Many will be dedicated to helping your community and will view
requests in your community's favor. However, with every replacement person
and with every level of authority within FEMA, interpretation of guidelines
and the rules themselves will change. Many of these changes will negatively
impact your ongoing recovery efforts. At least if you have written
documentation at a high enough level, you have a better chance of fighting a
negative decision that occurs late in the recovery process.

#9 Just as the community must plan for disaster at an individual level, so
too must your community's leadership. Disaster planning goes beyond
preparation for the crisis. The real work is not preparing for the event,
but preparing how to recover from the crisis that follows. 
Ensure your community (fire, police, medical, schools, churches, utilities,
government, etc.) has a RECOVERY PLAN, both short-term and long-term.  This
includes having systems in place for communications, accounting, human
resources, engineering, legal, information technology, public relations,
etc. that are led by people who know what their role will be to support
local leadership for recovery. Our nation is geared towards practicing for
disasters, but not recovering from disasters as this storm has vividly shown
us.

Deborah Keller