Warren G. Nance

First Call for Help

United Way of Central Carolinas

Charlotte, NC

 

 

Describes the experiences of a United Way-based referral agency following Hurrican Hugo's rampage along the south Atlan tic coast in 1989.  The agency worked closely with the city's Hugo Hotline, the county's Emergency Operations Center, numerous disaster relief agencies, and volunteer relief efforts (including the members of the Independent Order of Foresters, who helped residents clear fallen trees and branches from private property following initial on-site screening by the agency and by staff loaned from other agencies).  The author traces changing community relief needs as time passed and recovery efforts progressed. (Originally written in February, 1990)

  September 22, 1989-early morning-an ill wind blows through Charlotte, N.C.

  The damaging results of that ill wind still haunt the offices and staff of United Way's First Call For Help (FCFH).

Hurricane Hugo made landfall at Charleston, S.C., wreaking havoc and causing unbelievable destruction.  Unfortunately, about six hours later Hugo still maintained serious hurricane force winds as the eye of the storm passed directly over Charlotte, N.C. Charlotte is a city known for its trees.  They were stately, beautiful, and numerous.  They were also easy prey for the destructive winds of Hugo.

The untimely meeting of those two realities-the stately grandeur of Charlotte's trees and the pervasive strength of Hugo-produced profoundly destructive results for the city of Charlotte and its residents.  Initially, the loss of electrical power was almost universal.  In the uptown area where United Way offices are located, power was restored very quickly.  In most sections of the community, though, it took days and in some cases weeks for power to be restored.  And the repairs were accomplished in that short period only because the area's electrical supplier, Duke Power Company, worked around the clock with its own crews and also secured the services of numerous outside contractors to assist in the repair operations.

The problems created by the loss of electrical power over an extended period of time were numerous.

• Food:      food spoilage/loss, food replacement, food preparation, people on special diets, homebound elderly and handicapped needing daily hot meals.

·    Water: while the majority of Charlotte city residents are connected to city water/sewage, not all are, nor are many residents outside Charlotte city limits.  Those with private well/septic tank systems faced serious problems as a result of the extended power outage.

·    Heat/lights:     while temperatures were not extreme, it did get cool/chilly on several nights.  People with serious health problems or even marginal health conditions had difficulty.  Many people were also left without lights during the evening hours.

·    Life support systems: with the extended power outage, private residents using life-support systems faced life-threatening situations.

·    Information sharing: normally, most people rely heavily on the electronic media for current information.  Without access to battery powered radio/TV, securing current information about what was occurring and what was available was extremely difficult.

 

In addition to problems created by the power outage, numerous other situations developed.

·    Damage to Personal Public business property because of fallen/damaged trees: Problems centered around personal safety, emergency shelter needs, lost work time, and lost wages as a result of lost work time.

 

Transportation:                In addition to the loss of traffic control systems due to the power outage, downed trees and power lines initially made transportation difficult and sometimes dangerous.  While that inconvenienced the population as a whole, it created especially serious problems for people with medical needs and emergencies.

•  Telephone service: While telephone service loss was not as extensive as power loss was, it was significant and created a deepened sense of isolation, especially for the homebound and the frail and isolated elderly.

• Staff morale: Emergency response personnel and the staff of numerous agencies worked continuously long hours over an extended period responding to the need created by Hurricane Hugo's presence.  Work loads grew as staff worked to resolve Hugo related problems.

 

A wide range of agencies and local government departments was involved in responding to Hurricane Hugo.  One major player was the United Way of Central Carolinas.  United Way's response was most visibly organized and expressed through its Community Resources Department, especially involving its First Call for Help (FCFH) program and the Volunteer Center.  Staff from other functions and departments within United Way provided additional personnel, and the United Way Campaign was put on hold for a two-week period as the organization and its volunteer structure as a whole worked to respond to the crisis in the community.  FCFH staff worked 21 consecutive extended days as part of the initial response.  The excellence of United Way's response was due in large measure to the quality, dedication, commitment and supportive team work of the FCFH staff.

 

Day 1: Friday September 22. 1989

The United Way office was not open due to the lack of power.  Both FCFH and United Way telephone lines were forwarded to the home of the FCFH director.  Communication was established with Charlotte City Manager's office personnel.  The city was establishing a Hugo Hotline for city resi-

dents to call for assistance with Hugo related problems.  The intent of the Hotline was to respond to questions concerning city services and questions concerning damage to city property by trees either on city or private property and/or damage to private property by trees on city property.  All questions relating to personal need and damage on private property by trees on private property would be channeled to either United Way's FCFH or the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) established by Mecklenburg County.  Throughout the initial stages of the crisis, those were the primary response points for the community. (Interestingly, on September 22, no Hugo related calls were received.) Power was restored to the uptown area by late afternoon, and the decision was made to open the FCFH office for operation on Saturday, September 23.  Appropriate staff were notified.

 

Days 2 & 3: Saturday/Sunday, September 23, 24, 1989

FCFH and other appropriate staff assembled in the staff offices at 9:00 A.M. on Saturday.  The initial plan was to establish necessary contact with the Hugo Hotline and the EOC, to determine the operational status of other emergency response agencies, and to monitor the nature and volume of incoming requests for assistance.

Contact with the Hugo Hotline reaffirmed the lines of responsibility agreed upon, and the Hugo Hotline immediately began to hand-deliver a wide variety of personal need and personal property situations to the FCFH offices.  Contact with the EOC was established, and preferred referral procedures were affirmed.  In addition to emergency medical and law enforcement personnel, representatives of the American Red Cross, Department of Social Services, Mental Health Services, and the Health Department were located at the EOC.  Whenever possible, FCFH staff would make direct contact with appropriate staff at EOC on behalf of the client instead of having the general public call the EOC.  Contact with the Salvation Army was attempted by telephone but was unsuccessful.  Staff went personally to the Salvation Army site to establish communication and determine services being provided.

Incoming telephone calls were extremely heavy and became more than could be realistically handled by FCFH staff.  Additional United Way staff were contacted and called in to assist.  Initial calls dealt with emergency food, shelter and medical needs, lack of access and/or pending danger to homes because of damaged trees, informational needs about the extent of damage and response resources, heating needs, water needs, and people who were interested in volunteering.

Constant contact was maintained with both the EOC and the Hugo Hotline to maintain current information on available resources and services.  During one of those exchanges, the Hugo Hotline shared an offer for volunteer assistance from an organization known as the Independent Order of Foresters (IOF).  The IOF had some chainsaws and wanted to take care of the emergency access needs of their own "family" but needed additional volunteer assistance to accomplish that.  Contact was established with the leadership of the IOF.  An important agreement was reached: with appropriate support from United Way, the IOF would expand its horizons and respond to all private property emergency access situations.  This became a major point of referral for FCFH!

Sunday once again brought FCFH staff to work early.  The same basic procedures were followed, and the volume of telephone calls increased as information about FCFH's availability began to spread.  While the nature of the incoming telephone calls was basically the same, some calls began to filter in from individuals wishing to make donations to assist relief efforts either in Charlotte or in Charleston.

During the course of the day, the nature of the incoming calls was carefully assessed.  As a result of that assessment, a plan of action was developed which would carry FCFH and the Community Resources Department of United Way throughout the duration of the crisis.

• Staff informational needs: three action plans were developed

1 .      A United Way staff member was assigned to work in the EOC office, thereby giving FCFH a direct line of contact for informational and needs updates.

  2.       A FCFH staff person was assigned the responsibility of maintaining contact with all agencies involved in the crisis response to determine services and resources available and the location of said services (i.e., hot meal sites, water holes, where ice was available, shelter sites, etc.).

3.      A staff meeting would be held every morning for information sharing, and information gathered from that meeting would be put in memo form

and posted in a location accessible to all staff and volunteers.  Newsprint taped to the wall with appropriate information would be used as a means of immediate communication until memos were finished.1

m-            Training: because of the escalating volume of calls, FCFH was constantly seeking other staff and volunteers to assist.  Through its Case Advocacy Program, FCFH has a qualified trainer on staff.  That individual was assigned the responsibility of providing necessary training to newly recruited personnel.

D.            Incoming telephone calls/division of labor: incoming telephone calls were beginning to develop into distinct patterns of need and request.  For those calls requiring more than an immediate and quick referral to an established resource/agency, individual staff were assigned specific areas of responsibility.

The division of labor fell generally along the following

patterns:

1 .  Volunteers

2.      Donations

3.      Trees

4.      Food, especially home delivered meals for the homebound handicapped and elderly.

5.      Medical emergencies/needs

6.       For lack of better terminology-unusual, odd, extremely complex situations.

 

Week 1: Monday, September 25-Sunday, October 1. 1989 The telephones simply did not stop ringing, ever!  FCFH has four direct incoming telephone lines.  Each station is also accessible through the United Way switchboard.  There are

 

 

lafter one day of following this procedure, it was agreed that anyone but the FCFH director would write on the newsprint.  No one could read his handwriting.

  1 1 stations being used by FCFH staff/volunteers.  That results in a lot of different places for the telephone to ring. And the telephone figured out a way to ring at each of those places on a constant basis. The consistency was frightening and, at time, overwhelmingly

The operational plan developed on Sunday was implemented, enhancing the response capacity of FCFH staff and volunteers.  FCFH continued to receive excellent support from other United Way staff and from the staff of the Charlotte Area Fund (whose facility was not functional).  The Executive Director and several Charlotte Area Fund staff provided full day assistance the entire week to FCFH staff.

As the week progressed, calls regarding trees began to change in nature.  There were fewer calls about immediate access problems and a growing number of calls about more substantial damage and problems.  As time passed and power remained out for the vast majority of the community, issues surrounding food needs, heating, the lack of light at night, and a continuing sense of isolation became more pronounced.

Initial discussions were held with the leadership of the IOF to see if, with the continued support of United Way, they could change the emphasis of their activity on private property from emergency access cutting only to a more comprehensive work plan at each site.  To help in that process, FCFH (with United Way's help) would establish eligibility criterion for volunteer assistance and develop a screening process so the volunteer efforts of the IOF would not be abused.  With that understanding, the IOF agreed to expand the scope of its volunteer work.

After a thorough review of the situation, the following eligibility criteria were established for people needing assistance with trees on private property:

A.     The elderly, handicapped and single-parent families on fixed incomes.

B.     Home owners only.  Landlords would be requested to work with tenants on resolving difficult tree situations.

C.     Work would be on cutting trees and limbs.  No debris would be moved to the street-other volunteers would be recruited for that purpose.  No work would be done on stump removal; neither United Way nor the IOF had access to appropriate equipment for that purpose.  Telephone screening is not as effective as face to face screening.  In an effort to assure the linkage of appropriate need with limited volunteer resources, the following outreach program was developed.  Staff from the city's Community Development, Neighborhood Centers, Parks and Recreation Department, and Employment and Training Department were placed on loan to FCFH.  In addition, staff members from United Family Services, Charlotte Area Fund, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee were made available to assist in the outreach screening efforts.  These on-loan staff worked through October 13, 1989.  Several were then reloaned for a week in November for additional outreach work.

 

The purpose of the outreach was to get an accurate firsthand view of the tree situation at each home visited.  Outreach workers were asked to provide a description of the number, location, and condition of damaged trees (i.e., trees on ground, leaning, on roof, hanging limbs, near power lines, etc.). They were also encouraged to gently assess the capacity of the homeowner to care for the situation themselves.  Even though the loan staff were all veteran outreach workers, all staff were trained on eligibility.  Forms were developed to record needed descriptive material.  Teams of two were established.  When donations were available, each team also carried with them blankets, candies and sandwiches.  As the home visit assessments were made, those resources were used as appropriate.  Tarps were also made available to the outreach teams for distribution as needed.

Over the next three weeks, the teams made in excess of 2,000 home visits.  The assessments received became exceptionally critical resources in helping to establish priority in responding to need.  While the IOF itself and many of the volunteers had good knowledge and skill with chainsaws, certain situations were known to be beyond their abilities.  Volunteer time was saved and spent where it could most effectively be used as a result of the screening visits.  Also the pattern of trees on houses, seriously leaning trees and trees with major hanging branches (all serious or potentially serious situations) was pinpointed as a current gap in resources for clients eligible for volunteer service.  United Way began the process of identifying professional resources which may be called upon to assist.

While the outreach/screening process established was effective and critically important in prioritizing and appropriately responding to needs created by damaged trees, the lack of one specific resource created ongoing problems and headaches for the FCFH staff.  The paperwork resulting from the outreach was, on a case by case basis, comprehensive and descriptively excellent.  It was also massive!  FCFH did not have access to a software package or sufficient hardware with which to input data and eliminate the paperwork.  Duplicate copies of all paperwork had to be made and transported to the site from which the IOF was operating so that IOF volunteers would have the descriptive material prior to their arrival at an individual site.  The resultant paper trails were long and often confusing.  Because of the sheer volume, some individuals became lost in the system.  Repeat calls from those individuals necessitated a second home visit and additional descriptive paperwork.  A comprehensive computerized system of data entry, storage, retrieval and updating would have significantly enhanced FCFH's capacity to effectively respond in this particular problem area and would have lessened the anxiety level of individuals desperately needing assistance.

A second area requiring an immense amount of FCFH staff time on an ongoing basis was the food needs of the homebound handicapped and frail/isolated elderly.  Two programs in the community were delivering meals, but their resources were limited.  Also, during the crisis, they were delivering only to the homebound without power.  Since power was gradually beginning to return to some sections of the city as the week progressed, daily telephone contact had to be made, along with daily referrals.  In an effort to supplement the work done by these programs, United Way solicited daily hot meal donations from operating restaurants in the community and recruited additional volunteers to deliver them.  The work by FCFH was needed and very successful but also extremely time consuming.

 As the end of the week approached and power remained out in many sections of the community, a new problem arose.  Many people who had been out of work for almost a week were not receiving wages as a result of lost work time.  Those individuals were beginning to experience emergency financial needs.  Many of them constantly lived on the edge of financial crisis anyway.  Hurricane Hugo deepened the severity of their already tenuous situation.  Some resources were available to help, but the emergency financial assistance network is confronted with need beyond the ability of their resources to respond even under normal conditions.

The call volume throughout the week continued to be intensive.  As time passed, programs were developed to meet emerging needs (especially relating to food).  The FCFH operation continued as a central point of information and hope for the community, and the FCFH staff operated beautifully and effectively under intense and immense stress and pressure.

 

Monday, October 2-Friday, October 13, 1989

During this two-week period, the FCFH staff continued its extended daily work time.  Saturday, October 14, would be the first day since September 22 that the FCFH staff would not be called into the office to respond to incoming requests for assistance.

The operating procedures established on September 24

continued.  This was a period of rapid change and yet, in certain areas, a period of continuing consistency.

The state of emergency for Mecklenburg County was lifted.  That produced several changing resource points.  The EOC ceased operation with the lifting of the state of emergency, as did several programs relating to food through the Food Stamp division of the Department of Social Services and the American Red Cross.  Additional new resources were developed through Crisis Assistance Ministry and the Metrolina Food Bank for providing emergency food relief.  The FCFH staff used that resource consistently and also began to move clients back into and through the regular referral system for assistance with emergency food needs.

The intensity of the call volume remained extremely high.

By October 13, power had been restored to a vast majority of the community.  Calls began to fall into four very distinct problem areas: food replacement; assistance with home repairs and the replacement of lost belongings; emergency financial assistance with the basic material needs of rent and utilities; and the ever present problems created by damaged and downed trees.

Outreach workers continued making home visits and assessments.  The IOF continued to respond to screened referrals from FCFH.  And the par)et trail problems mentioned before continued to be a headache as additional time passed.

October 13 marked the last day the loan staff from other agencies were available for outreach work.  The daily call volume at FCFH had decreased to a workable level, and the decision was made not to have staff return on Saturday, October 14.

It is estimated that from September 22, 1989 through October 13, 1989, the FCFH staff and volunteers had 40,000 + contacts directly related to Hurricane Hugo and the problems it created.  To put that in perspective, during calendar year 1989 FCFH handled 39,991 contacts not related to Hurricane Hugo.  In essence, our staff did a year's work in a very short period of time.  Their quality, commitment, dedication, humor, and supportive teamwork made an immense difference in this community's ability to respond.  Each in their own way is a hero!

 

October 14, 1989-February, 1990

As noted in the beginning the devastating results of Hurricane Hugo's presence still haunt the offices of FCFH and the Community Resources Department of United Way.  At the end of October, 1989, the IOF had to finally cease its volunteer involvement with United Way in responding to tree damage needs of community residents.

The need, though, continued to exist.  Therefore, United Way, in conjunction with personnel from the American Red Cross, pledged to continue the volunteer effort.  A different approach was developed in which work done at each site was comprehensive at the time of the visit.  Not only was the cutting which could be accomplished by volunteers done, but also the trees cut and other debris in the yard was moved to the street for pick up by the city of Charlotte.

 United Way management also continued to work with professional tree companies in the community on those situations which could not safely be handled by volunteers.  While, in February, 1990, life in the offices of FCFH and the Community Resources Department of United Way is not yet back to normal, there does indeed appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Hurricane Hugo proved something clearly that many people in the Charlotte area knew to be a fact.  Charlotte is indeed a caring community composed of a wide variety of people who are willing to go far more than the extra mile to help people in need.  Furthermore, the excellent cooperation which existed between city, county, United Way, and other private non-profit agencies displayed beautifully how people are willing to pull together to face a common crisis across many governmental and funding boundaries.

 

The FCFH staff was one of those major contributors to the overall community effort and response.  Their excellence under intense pressure and stress is a ringing tribute to their individual quality and professionalism.  While they were only one of many who responded, without them, the community would have been far poorer!

  >>Table of Contents