Cost Of Not Preparing For Disaster "Too High," Seminar Told

Is your church ready for a natural disaster?

That’s the question Mennonite Disaster Service Executive Director Kevin King posed at a seminar titled Preparing Congregations for Disaster at Columbus, 2009, the annual convention of Mennonite Church USA.

Noting that North America is in the midst of a pandemic flu outbreak, King stated that all congregations should ask "what if? What would we do if a disaster strikes?"

The cost of "not preparing is too high to contemplate," he added.

One person for who no longer questions the need for congregational disaster preparation is Jeff Blackburn, pastor of the Greensburg, Kansas Mennonite Church.

Although tornados are always possible in that part of the U.S., and he had heard warning sirens many times, he and his family thought "it never happens here," he told seminar participants.

But on May 4, 2007, it did happen there. That’s when a large tornado damaged or destroyed 95 percent of the town, including all nine of the community’s churches, and killed 11 people.

When Blackburn, his wife and daughter emerged from their basement shelter after the tornado, their house was gone.

"There was no house left," he said. "The stairs went up into the air."

His most immediate concern was for the safety of his family, and then for his congregation. Unfortunately, "we didn’t have a plan as a congregation" for what to do if a tornado, or other disaster, struck, he said.

Based on his experience, Blackburn recommended that every congregation have a disaster plan that includes ways to check on every member following a disaster.

Churches should also have a plan for what to do if a disaster strikes during a service, he added. "Do you know how you going to get everyone into the basement?" he asked.

Following a disaster, churches need to find ways to help members attend to their spiritual needs, along with meeting their physical needs.

"You have to take care of your spirit," he said. "A disaster sucks all the air out of you."

He also said that survivors need to be allowed to recover at their own pace.

"It takes a long time to get over this," he said, recalling being a pastor of a church in the mid-1980s where members had experienced a devastating tornado in 1965.

"They were still talking about it 20 years later," he said. "Now I know why it took so long."

He recommended that each church have an MDS representative, and that churches make contact with local emergency authorities and the Red Cross and Salvation Army before a disaster strikes.

King concluded the seminar by encouraging congregations to buy Beyond Our Fears, a new resource from MDS and Mennonite Church Canada that can help churches prepare for disasters. It is published by Mennonite Publishing Network.

Among other things, it can be used to help congregations do a hazard analysis for their church, he said.

"If you can imagine it [a disaster], it can happen," he said, adding that churches near a truck route, railroad track, refinery or a river can be especially vulnerable.

Or, as Blackburn added, "it never happens here until it happens here."

Click here to learn more about Beyond Our Fears.