• Animal Rescue/Shelter Groups
• DART Disaster Animal Response Team
• MRC Medical Reserve Corps
• Fire and Police K-9 Demonstrations
• Mobil Disaster Food Kitchen

*All pets must be registered, leashed, safe and waste removed by owners
For more information call the West Springfield Health Department: (413) 263-3206, or Email: kcnorbut@yahoo.com

Event sponsored by Western Ma Medical Reserve Corps

The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council (WRHSAC) has provided funds to the Western Massachusetts Fire Chiefs Association to conduct both Rope Rescue Training and Confined Space Rescue training for the Regional Team. WRHSAC also provided funds to purchase the trailers and the equipment. Here is a photo of the trailers leaving the manufacturers in North Carolina on their way to Chicopee, where the Regional Tech Rescue Team members are loading the equipment before the trailers are deployed to their staging locations.

The SKYWARN training covers fundamentals of thunderstorm development, storm structure, and identification of potential severe weather features. It also includes basic severe weather safety informtion. Free food  will be provided.

For more information, please see this flyer. Please register by calling 413-774-3167 x 101 or email admin@frcog.org

SKYWARN® is a registered trademark of NOAA’s National Weather Service

• Why meeting the needs of the whole community is not only a best practice, but also required by law. A review of both Massachusetts and Federal statutory requirements will be provided.
• How to plan for the whole community: A local Emergency Management Director (EMD) will discuss how the Community Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) Individuals Requiring Additional Assistance (IRAA) Annex can help.
• How to write or implement MOUs with agencies/organizations providing shelter management services and services to IRAA populations and why MOUs are important.
• How identify an individual within the community that could serve as IRAA spokesperson within the incident command structure.
• What training opportunities and other resources are available from the State, local private sector entities, as well as educational institutions within the region.

By the time you leave this event your CEMP Annex should be almost completed! More information and registration is available here.

Participants receive all the materials necessary to give LMaP workshops. The training class will be approximately 4 hours long and dinner is provided. More information is available here.

Register by April 10, 2013:

(413)774-3167 or admin@frcog.org

The purpose of this exercise is to evaluate volunteer activation and communications, volunteer job action sheets and just in time training. There will be a focus on resource access and utilization. The set up, functionality, and break down of assets housed at UMass will be tested. Medical control and command and coordination with University Health Services and the Hampshire County MRC volunteers will be trialed during this exercise. Participants will include Hampshire Medical Reserve Corps including Hampshire Emergency Animal Response Team, American Red Cross, Amherst Public Health, Amherst Animal Control, Hadley and Amherst Fire.

For more information or to register, please contact Jackie Duda, Easthampton Health Department at (413) 529-1443

• Berkshire County Emergency Food Networks
• Berkshire County Emergency Food Networks – Spanish
• Franklin County Emergency Food Networks
• Franklin County Emergency Food Networks – Spanish
• Hampshire County Emergency Food Networks
• Hampshire County Emergency Food Network – Spanish
• Hampden County Emergency Food Networks
• Hampden County Emergency Food Networks – Spanish

The Shriver Center will provide a free disability awareness workshop for public health and public safety emergency responders, planners and managers.

To schedule a training for your town and learn more about the program please see this flyer.

For project information please contact Nancy Shea at the UMass Shriver Center.

In face of unprecedented loss, whether from natural disasters or human-caused devastation, how does the community respond?  What can the faith community do?

One person who has frequently been on the scene is David L. Myers.  As Director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, he often meets with faith community volunteers helping with disaster recovery efforts.

Earlier in 2012, Rev. Myers came to the Berkshires to present the keynote address to more than 100 western Massachusetts leaders at the Faith Community and Emergency Responders Forum. With his perspective of having visited numerous FEMA sites and faith-based groups engaged in providing essentials to survivors, mucking out flooded houses, clearing downed trees, rebuilding after tornadoes, Rev. Myers observed, 

There’s something about disasters that put us—the church and the state—in a person-to-person mode of feeling and acting.

Thus, in face of the forces of destruction, we are able to transcend many of the differences that keep us apart during “normal” conditions.

A similar insight was offered by Meghan Spreer, a Red Cross worker deployed from Kansas to aid with Sandy relief.  She comments how disparate groups that might ordinarily not have much in common were able to join in neighbors helping neighbors:

It isn’t easy. It can be a frustrating time for everyone involved, especially for the people who have lived in their communities for their entire lives, and treasure their homes and neighbors they grew up with. The Red Cross Community Partnerships Team continues to work together with local non-profits, faith based partners, like the Gospel Assembly in Coney Island, local businesses and agencies, like the Sheepshead Bay Area Improvement Group, and pop-up groups like Occupy Sandy, to coordinate and create streamlined services to increase the capacity to respond to those in need.

 - Community Partnerships for New York Sandy Relief
    Posted on December 3rd, 2012 by Meghan Spreer

Local residents have a closing prayer at a Faith Action Forum
in Far Rockaway at the St. Mary of the Sea Church.

Here in Western Massachusetts, many congregations and individuals responded by spontaneously reaching out to help.  For example, the Hevreh congregation in Great Barrington partnered with a synagogue in Brooklyn and personally delivered supplies donated in just a few days.  In another initiative, Rev. Liz Goodman accompanied a community volunteer to meet with the Southern Berkshire Clergy Association in order to encourage congregation-to-congregation material aid and moral support.  Berkshire Episcopal clergy offered to pursue inquiries with the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.

For several weeks, the media reported on community members coming together with family, friends and strangers contributing time, money and supplies as well as bringing them to the impacted areas.  As one Berkshire-based volunteer summed up in a letter to The Berkshire Eagle:

On Saturday morning, the caravan of six vehicles filled with about 14 volunteers and hauling four trailers, headed to Breezy Point. As we arrived and saw the devastation that these people have suffered, I realized how appreciative I am to have the simple pleasures of everyday life. The things we take for granted were the basic necessities that these people from the Breezy Point area, and all of the other areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, no longer had. 

Although Hurricane Sandy has faded from the news, the need is still great.  How has your congregation, faith-based or community organization responded?  How will you respond in the future?