Michael Kraft
Prop 65 Warning: this piece contains multiple acronyms, known to the State of California to cause confusion.
Humboldt COAD came together in 2019, when community leaders determined that the region wasn’t disaster ready. Over the next few years, these folks started finding and enlisting all kinds of agencies in partnership. At the end of 2022, the Rio Dell earthquake struck, proving that the effort was needed and the work reached warp speed. Humboldt COAD incorporated as an independent 501c3 nonprofit in 2024.
Not that nothing had been done previously. The State Office of Emergency Services (OES) spearheaded VOAD (swap Volunteer for Community), an effort dating locally to at least 2002. For several years, there was great representation by county government and nonprofit organizations, notably the Red Cross. However, the effort dwindled over time, and Red Cross presence in the region greatly declined.
Now the effort has revitalized, making government services and responses, such as those through OES, flow more seamlessly. COAD itself is comprised of CBO’s (community-based organizations) who offer their expertise and resources in response to a disaster event. Their power is in the partnerships COAD puts in place ahead of the need for them. These include dozens of organizations like food banks, animal welfare organizations and communications providers such as KMUD, Humboldt Hot Air and ham radio operators.
Board member Anne Holcomb says that Rio Dell taught them a lot. When a disaster unfolds, many agencies show up to help, each with specialties in things like housing or medical response; they require local information and guidance in order to work effectively with our local OES. Rio Dell was no exception, and agencies formed many formal and informal partnerships. The Rio Dell Community Resource Center became the hub for food distribution and disaster case management. The Hope Crisis Network, Arcata House Partnership and Changing Tides Family Services pitched in in their areas of expertise to form the Long Term Recovery Group, whose work to rebuild homes and lives is finally winding down. Others served vetting vendors and helping with permitting.
Notably, FEMA—the Federal Emergency Management Agency, otherwise known as the cavalry—did not come to the rescue. Rio Dell’s financial losses didn’t rise to the minimum dollar threshold to qualify for a declared disaster. (This situation will get worse if the federal government guts FEMA. While FEMA didn’t provide substantial services to Rio Dell, they likely would if a similar scale of disaster hit McKinleyville, Arcata and/or Eureka.)
All of this reinforces that we need to be prepared locally, and not just because smaller towns might not qualify for the bigger funding. If there’s a wide disaster, say an earthquake and tsunami that affect both the North Coast and the Bay Area, we will almost certainly be on our own for quite a while, both literally and figuratively.
To that end, Anne says that much of disaster preparedness simply has to occur at the household and neighborhood levels. Make a plan. Have your meds, water, food and legal documents collected and ready to grab in a go bag. (OES provides a go bag supply list here: https://news.caloes.ca.gov/grab-and-go-bag/.) Know safe places to evacuate, which will vary depending on the emergency situation. Create a communications plan for how to be in touch with loved ones that doesn’t involve trying to drive around randomly in a disaster area. Form neighborhood pod groups, where you proactively plan to take care of each other and know who might need extra help. Anne cites Orleans as an example of a town with a great community network, something they demonstrated during recent fires.
So, how can we help? First, this is one of those places where charity really does begin at home. Take care of the checklist above for your home and neighborhood.
When a disaster strikes, COAD will be working with its members and community partners to respond, as directed through the Incident Command structure established by the OES. If you want to get involved, I’ll highlight two additional ways for you to engage.
First, join or support one of COAD’s partner organizations; see the extensive list here: https://www.humboldtcoad.org/member-organizations. All of these organizations activate in a disaster and, as one of their volunteers trained in some portion of disaster response, you can help.
Then, as a representative of a partner organization, you might then serve on a COAD working group. These groups are where the rubber meets the road in COADS disaster planning.
· Tribal Working Group
· Food Access Working Group
· Access and Functional Needs Working Group
· Child Care Working Group
· Community Wellbeing Working Group
· Communications and Public Information Working Group
· Preparedness and Trainings Working Group
· Donations Management
· Animal Welfare Working Group
· Asset Identification Working Group
It’s cliche but accurate to note that it’s not if we experience a major disaster here, it’s when. We’ve had two wake-up calls this year, a benign large earthquake and a tsunami scare just last week. We shouldn’t sleep on disasters, but we can rest easier if we do our parts and we know that the community organizations that collaborate through Humboldt COAD are doing theirs.
Michael Kraft writes the Good Work series, volunteering on behalf of the Northern California Association of Nonprofits (NorCAN). NorCAN supports connections between people and organizations that work every day to keep our communities healthy and strong by offering professional development, board support, networking connections and more. Learn more at https://norcal-nonprofits.org/.To nominate a deserving nonprofit organization to be profiled, email michael@kraftconsultants.com.
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