Monroe County's emergency-preparedness leaders want the local communities of faith to join them on the front lines should the area ever be struck with a natural or manmade disaster.
Monroe County Citizens Corps Council President Kim Strellis hosted a
meeting of pastors from several churches, inviting them to initiate disaster plans for their congregations and possibly to cooperate in a joint effort to help the county weather a catastrophe.The meeting was Monday at the Monroe County Courthouse.
"It's great that we have all of these churches together. If you, as pastors, didn't care, you wouldn't be here," Strellis said.
Bi-County Health Department Administrator Tom Smith, a founding member of the county's Community Emergency Response Team, said the December 2006 evacuation of the Monroe County Care & Rehabilitation Center due to an ice storm showed the importance of churches at times of distress.
"We didn't invent this out of whole cloth," Smith said. "(Concord Presbyterian Church of Waterloo) was looking for a project for the betterment of the community. That's when the ice storm hit. The church as well as a number of other groups and individuals evacuated the home, which is a monumental task. And no one was hurt, which is fantastic.
"Most pastors have excellent counseling skills-that's why you're pastors. You are the immediate 'first responders' to your congregation."
Martha Hawn, a mental health professional who is a member of the Citizens Corps Council, said, "the last person (when a disaster hits) some people will want to talk to is a mental health specialist."
"They're going to go to the people they know and trust," she said. "That's the pastors in this room."
Waterloo Mayor Tom Smith (no relation to the health administrator) said churches can provide more than spiritual support during a disaster.
"You have facilities for housing, feeding people and gathering information so our citizens can be informed," he said.
Strellis suggested the clergy designate a representative to become a member of the Citizens Corps.
"It was great to see so many churches from the county represented at the event," the Rev. Mary Beth Hartenstein of St. Paul United Church of Christ in Waterloo said. "Truly it would be my hope that in the event of an actual disaster that we would all lay aside our differences and focus on the most important thing we hold in common-our humanity.
"In a time of crisis, it would be my hope that no one would care whether I am progressive or conservative in my political views, what my opinion is on marriage equality is, or whether I support reproductive rights. It would be my hope that everyone would be willing to hold one another's hand to offer support and care. I hope that this will be an opportunity to work ecumenically together for the common good of all people."
The Rev. Will Hesterberg of Concord Presbyterian Church in Waterloo said getting the churches to assume a role in any disaster plan "only makes logical sense."
"We touch lives everywhere, we are aware of a lot of people and their needs," he said. "And we do have certain resources in our churches that would be helpful in a disaster. (Handling a disaster) is simply too big a job for any one group."
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