Building Stronger Communities After Natural Disasters

These stories include:

• The Mayfield Minority Enrichment Center has provided prepaid Visa cards, paid utility bills, offered hot meals, moved community members into safe housing, and helped immigrant communities access government services. They’re currently focused on assisting people with car and transportation needs and providing household items to families that are starting over. From purchasing tennis shoes for a teenager displaced by the tornado to delivering generators to keep elderly people warm, the Center continues to respond to the unique needs of BIPOC and immigrant residents in what they call “tornado alley.”
• Community Agenda for Regained Empowerment (CARE) has applied culturally relevant approaches to all its tornado relief efforts, reaching out to community members in several different languages. Following the storm, CARE quickly launched its Ethnic Foods Project, which provided weekly meals and fuel to over 100 individuals for two months and partnered with five local international markets, including a halal store, to help residents access appropriate foods.
• Thousands of members of the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) were directly affected by the tornado. In addition to providing hot meals, supplies, and direct cash assistance, the chapter created a wellness check system via text messaging for nearly 3,000 members. Not only does the system distribute important information about applying for federal assistance and avoiding scams, it also encourages community members to check on each other and alert the union when a fellow member may need additional outreach and support.

In speaking with the leaders of these and other organizations on the ground, a few important lessons emerged.

First, we learned that more must be done to invest in infrastructure in rural areas. CADT described Western Kentucky as an “infrastructure desert,” lacking in access to affordable, quality food, healthcare, Internet, and other key services. This lack of access made the response to and recovery from a natural disaster even more difficult. CADT and its partners are trying to seize this opportunity to build meaningful, sustainable infrastructure at the local level.

Second, donations should be directed to grassroots and community-based organizations whenever possible. In the first six weeks after the storm, 11,800 Kentuckians applied for FEMA assistance, but only 14% of those requests were approved, according to the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. And even as relief funds poured into the state from private and non-government organizations, Kentuckians found them difficult to access. By directing their funding to organizations that had been working on the ground for years, CADT was able to deliver aid to communities often left out of traditional relief efforts.

And finally, disaster response efforts must be equitable, holistic, and built for the long term. The five organizations that The Rockefeller Foundation supported have thus far succeeded in meeting the short- and longer-term needs of the affected communities.

While it’s impossible to know when and where a natural disaster will hit, it is possible to respond in a way that makes a community stronger and more resilient than it was before. When these tragedies strike, we must help ensure all those in need can access support and care. The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support organizations doing just that in Mayfield and across Western Kentucky. And we will carry with us the lessons, the tenacity, and the inspiration that these Kentuckians have shared in the face of a terrible tragedy.