May 20, 2019 | From City of New Orleans
City of New Orleans, Greater New Orleans Foundation Convene Hurricane Readiness Exercise with Disaster Recovery Organizations
NEW ORLEANS — Today, the City of New Orleans and the Greater New Orleans Foundation convened a group of local disaster recovery organizations to discuss capabilities and readiness ahead of the June 1 start of the 2019 hurricane season. This table-top exercise challenged participants to discuss the efforts and resources needed in the days and weeks following a major hurricane in New Orleans.
“We are grateful for the work these organizations do to help communities bounce back after disaster,” said New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (NOHSEP) Director Collin Arnold. “Today’s discussion reiterated that New Orleans is a leader in community resilience; however, we also identified opportunities for growth. That is exactly what table-top exercises are designed to do.”
“Since Hurricane Katrina, we have been leading the philanthropic response to disasters in our region,” said Greater New Orleans Foundation President and CEO Andy Kopplin. “We spearheaded the Unified New Orleans Planning (UNOP) process and raised a $23 million fund for affordable housing after Katrina. We responded after the floods hit Baton Rouge in 2016 and tornadoes hit New Orleans East in 2017, and since 2014 we have been leading our region’s movement to 'live with water' by building more green infrastructure. Ensuring that nonprofits, philanthropy and the government are coordinated and prepared for hurricane season is one of the ways we are leveraging our role and expertise as a convener, strategic grantmaker and civic leader. We are proud to stand with Mayor Cantrell’s administration and the hundreds of professionals and volunteers who activate when we need them the most.”
After a hurricane or other large-scale disaster, community organizations play a major role in immediate and long-term recovery, offering services ranging from direct rebuilding and case management assistance to volunteer and donation management. Today’s exercise helped to identify local capabilities and capacity should the region be impacted by a disaster, as well as to facilitate continued collaboration between the local government, nonprofit, and philanthropic partners in the arena of community preparedness.
Participants included:
- Advocacy Center of Louisiana
- Baptist Community Ministries
- Cajun Army
- Cajun Navy Relief
- Camp Restore
- Catholic Charities
- Evacuteer
- Foundation for Louisiana
- Franklin Avenue Baptist Church
- Greater Saint Stephens Baptist Church
- Hands On New Orleans
- Housing NOLA
- Latino Forum/Language Access Coalition
- Louisiana State Bar Association
- Medical Reserve Corps
- New Orleans Breastfeeding Center
- New Orleans Council on Aging
- New Orleans Preservation Council/New Orleans Alliance for Response
- Nola Tree Project
- Red Cross
- Rotary International
- Salvation Army
- SBP
- Second Harvest Food Bank
- Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
- Team Rubicon
- UMCOR (United Methodist Disaster Relief)
- United Saints Recovery Project
- United Way Southeast Louisiana
- VAYLA
- Via Link/211
# # #