What Are We Doing?

… work toward the mission of helping minimize the effects of a disaster.

… enhance the community’s ability to mitigate, prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, thus ensuring that human needs are met to provide a safe, sanitary and secure community.

… Preparation is vital to an effective response.  It is not IF but WHEN.

Likely you have hear the horror stories of people returning from an attempt to help during a disaster in other communities:
“I got there and sat around for hours before they were able to give me anything to do.”
“They had me, a licensed electrician, serving food.”
“No one seemed to know what to do and there were way too many managers.”

Granted, any disaster scenario is going to create some chaos even with the best preparation. But not being prepared (thinking through various situations, planning how to respond and then testing those plans) will significantly improve the speed at which you are able to react. Having the right people on the bus is only part of the solution. Having those people in the correct seats is the secret to success.

We are all volunteer so the more of you we can engage the more we will be able to accomplish during the preparation phase.  Here’s how you can get involved:
1. Come to one of the workshops coming up. The first is March 5 at 3:30 at the EOC (640 South Franklin Greenfield)
2. Get training on March 21,March 28 or April 18 at Calvary Baptist Church
3. Make a donation to support our operations. No staff but we still have expenses to cover
4. Offer resources you might be willing to loan during a crisis (4WD vehicle, generator, expertise)
5. Tech support (web work, Salesforce development,…)

To find out more feel free to call 317-372-2304 or view other posts on our web site

Hancock County COAD Team
www.HancockCOAD.org

What Is a COAD?

A COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster) is a collaborative network of organizations, churches, agencies, individuals, businesses and others based within a community or geographic area (in this case Hancock County, Indiana) representing public, private and not-for-profit agencies, which work toward the mission of helping minimize the effects of a disaster.

A COAD will enhance the community’s ability to mitigate, prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, thus ensuring that human needs are met to provide a safe, sanitary and secure community.

We strive to improve communication, cooperation, collaboration and coordination among those concerned about disasters in Hancock County. Preparation is vital to an effective response.  It is not IF but WHEN.

Stay tuned for specifics about how you can help.

Hancock County COAD Team

Be Prepared

That is far more than the Boy Scout motto.Those are our marching orders as a COAD. In fact that is our sole purpose until a disaster strikes Hancock County.  Training and exercises are where we learn, by testing, how good the plans are that we have made..

We are going to hold a series of workshops to take a brief walk through of various circumstances and how our plans say that we would respond.  All of these will be at the EOC at 640 South Franklin Rd, Greenfield. All will start at 3:30 PM. The plan is to finish in 45 minutes, no longer than an hour.  We will focus on one area with each workshop but how the pieces fit together with other COAD functions and the greater EMA function will necessarily be a part of what we look at.

Here are the dates and subjects (first is firm, others are tentative):
March 5 – Shelter with Transportation and Pet Care
March 24 – Command & Control with Communications (Setting up our Command Center and staffing EOC)
April 16 – Food & Hydration with Warehousing
May 5 – Volunteer Reception Center with Long Term Recovery Group

We know we have barely begun thinking about some of these areas and there are minor and major tweaks required in others. The purpose of the workshops is to clarify and prioritize our work areas.

Respond to email or call me at 317-372-2304 with questions or RSVP.

Hancock County COAD Team
www.HancockCOAD.org