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The Spark: How Disaster Prep Can Bring Your Community Together
Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly newsletter that’s all about how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice.
DIY disaster-preparedness kits you can make for vulnerable neighbors.
How to turn your home into a public charging station during blackouts.
Every disaster needs a logistics coordinator –– could it be you?
The community-connecting power of DIY disaster kits
After Hurricane Francine drenched New Orleans with seven inches of rain in September last year, thousands of people across the city lost power. For many residents of an independent living facility, the power cut meant they couldn’t leave the building. Without an elevator, many residents were stranded on the upper floors without electricity and limited food or water.
A local resident alerted Klie Kliebert, director of the local organization Imagine Water Works. With more than a decade of experience responding to flooding and water emergencies, the group mobilized to get supplies to the building’s residents.
So this summer, with hurricane season approaching yet again, the same resident came back with a new request. “Y’all came in and helped a lot,” Kliebert recalls them saying. “I was wondering if maybe you could do that ahead of time.”
Each June, volunteers deliver a five-day supply of shelf-stable food to older adults in Jacksonville, Florida. Credit: Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry.
Disaster preparedness needn’t be expensive or complicated, and it certainly shouldn’t be isolating. In fact, helping vulnerable residents prepare is a great way to strengthen community bonds and check in on those in need.
To help the independent living facility, Imagine Water Works put together a wish list of items and began asking locals to donate. Priority needs include power banks, rechargeable fans, seven-day candles, headlamps and Liquid IV, which can help people stay hydrated.
Hurricane prep isn’t one-size-fits-all, which makes locals ideal participants –– who better to know what their neighbors will need in a crisis? A Texas town might need gas to keep their vehicles running, while in Brooklyn, solar-powered communal phone chargers might be the top priority.
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Each June in Jacksonville, Florida, volunteers with the social service agency Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry (BEAM) deliver a five-day supply of shelf-stable food to older adults. In addition to easy foods like shelf-stable milk, cereal and canned foods, the kits also include things like battery-powered radios and lanterns, body wipes, hand sanitizer and first-aid kits. Over the years, the kits have changed depending on funding and needs. Now, they include an extra supply of batteries so people can reuse devices from previous years. This June, 72 households received a kit.
These deliveries create social connections, says Melissa Kicklighter, senior program manager of BEAM’s senior services. When volunteers drop off supplies, they often chat with recipients about how they’re preparing for storms, which helps establish relationships that can be critical in an emergency.
As a social service agency, BEAM is already well connected with older adults in the area. The first year, the kits were sponsored by a donor. But Kicklighter says this effort could easily be replicated by any socially minded group. Anyone, she says, can organize a supply drive, gather items and distribute kits to vulnerable neighbors.
“It’s not saying, ‘Here, let me, as one person, try to pay for all this,’” she says. “It’s coming together and looking at what is the greater good that we can do for our community.”
Disaster preparedness needn’t be expensive or complicated. Credit: Helen Pace Photography.
Look for others you can partner with, like mutual aid groups. And marshal your local contacts. Have a friend who’s an extrovert? Recruit them to reach out and start conversations. Know a whiz at Excel? Invite them to help organize the spreadsheets.
Kliebert suggests starting small –– for instance, find one local independent living facility to support. Talking with the people you’d like to help is a good first step. Find out what previous storms were like for them, and what they needed afterwards. Then, Kliebert says, make a wish list and circulate it to see what items you can collect.
“Don’t worry if you don’t get all the things on your list,” Kliebert says. “Anything that we get, especially if it is requested, is going to be huge and be a game changer for that community.”
For more information, check out Imagine Water Works’ Hurricane Hub for supply lists and more storm preparation tips.
When the lights go out, bring power to the people
In New Orleans after a hurricane, residents whose homes still have power will often run an extension cord out to the curb and put up a sign inviting passersby to charge their devices.
The trend took off after Hurricane Zeta in October 2020, when a single household set up a public charging station. Many others followed suit. The storm hit shortly before Halloween, and residents leaned into the spirit of the season, putting Covid supplies and buckets of candy alongside their power cords.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, in 2005. Credit: Eric Isselee / Shutterstock.
Meanwhile, someone with a steady power connection created a map, marking every address where someone was offering electricity.
In the years since, power sharing has become a common part of New Orleans’ communal storm response, according to Kliebert of Imagine Water Works. Even municipal locations like rec centers and fire stations participate, opening their doors to let the public plug in.
“At this point in New Orleans, it’s actually kind of weird if you have power and you don’t put something out,” says Kliebert.
How spreadsheet warriors can help coordinate disaster response
After Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina in 2024, Helen Pace and her daughters spent most days by a white tent in front of her house in the mountain community of Middle Fork. The tent was a neighborhood supply hub: the Pace family and other local volunteers would collect aid like water, food and fuel cans, and make them available to people in the community who needed them.
But it wasn’t until Election Day, when Pace was driving to her polling place, that the extent of the damage from the flooding and mudslides really hit her.
“At that point, I decided that the effort had to be bigger,” Pace says.
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One of the challenges was simply knowing who needed what kind of help. So Pace created a simple Google Form where residents could explain their specific needs, like driveway repair or plumbing services. Then, when teams of volunteers came to the area, Pace had the spreadsheet ready to share with them. Volunteers with special tools or skills — like tree removal or bridge repair — could find who needed their help the most.
The process was like matchmaking, Pace says. “Trying to put the puzzle pieces together.”
About 185 homes registered for help through the list, with many receiving support through last winter. About 85 households are active cases now, though Pace says the stream of volunteers slowed down over the summer.
The effort still takes coordination — Pace organizes volunteer days and helps to make connections. She says the simple tracking system could be replicated in other areas that are navigating disaster recovery.
“It actually is, for me, a very, very simple tool that is something that helps keep everything together in one place,” she says.
The post The Spark: How Disaster Prep Can Bring Your Community Together appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
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