Hurricane Preparedness Week: FFTP Pre-Positions Emergency Supplies for Quicker Response After a Disaster
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (May 8, 2024) – National Hurricane Preparedness Week, May 5-11, is the perfect time to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, which begins on June 1. Preparations are underway at Food For The Poor (FFTP), with the charity pre-positioning critical relief supplies in Latin America and the Caribbean so that its partners can quickly respond if a storm or other disaster strikes.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is forecast to be one of the most active on record, with as many as 25 named storms expected, making it imperative to make “blue sky” preparations while there are no threats on the horizon.
“The ideal time to prepare for major weather events is during periods of blue skies, and that’s exactly what we are doing,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said. “With an above-average hurricane season on the horizon, we must be as prepared as we possibly can be to provide aid to the countries we serve. Pre-positioning our relief supplies with our in-country partners gives them a means of responding immediately to needs on the ground without having to wait for supplies to be shipped in the days after the disaster.”
Disaster kits will be sent to the following nine countries, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. FFTP also is preparing to pre-position four domestic kits for response to disasters in the United States. The charity will also have six disaster kits in its Coconut Creek headquarters ready to be sent to the countries as replenishment as needed.
The international kits will have enough supplies to support 250 families, except for Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where FFTP is working with partners in two locations to expand its reach. In those countries, two kits will provide supplies for 500 families.
Each kit will include 250 tarps, 320 disaster blankets, 280 children’s activity kits from Midwest Mission Distribution Center, 540 disaster hygiene kits with items from MAP International, 250 women care kits, 7,000 packets of Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier, an oral rehydration solution, 5,760 water purification sachets from Water Mission, 250 hand-crank emergency radio flashlights, and 250 diaper packs. FFTP also provides heavy-duty bags that in-country partners use to package individual relief kits for each family.
As part of its disaster response plans, FFTP also will maintain two international air freight-ready disaster response kits in the charity’s Coconut Creek warehouse. Each kit contains 200 tarps, 96 disaster blankets, 3,240 cans of Vienna sausages, 540 disaster hygiene kits, and 60 two-burner propane stoves. The kits can be sent within days to replenish supplies if one of the nine countries exhausts its supply of pre-positioned relief kits. They also can be sent to assist any of the other countries the charity helps in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In addition, the charity will have 960 cleaning kits, consisting of buckets, and cleaning supplies, stocked at its Coconut Creek warehouse, ready for distribution in the wake of extreme flooding after a major storm.
Planning well in advance for potential storms proved especially beneficial in November 2023, when FFTP partners were able to respond quickly to back-to-back weather events in Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
In Honduras, heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides in the northern part of the country. The rivers were flooding and caused damage to the homes nearby. FFTP and its in-country partner CEPUDO distributed disaster kits, food care packages, and emergency personal hygiene kits throughout the communities the charity serves.
“Having the goods already in place enabled CEPUDO to immediately go out and do search and rescue and provide supplies to people in need,” said Jisabelle Garcia-Pedroso, FFTP’s Director of Disaster Preparedness and Response. “They didn’t have to wait for us to send them funds or wait for logistics to open up, and that’s the goal – to empower our local partners to have goods ready to go.”
That same month, FFTP partner Order of Malta distributed 500 disaster kits with essential items to families in seven communities in the Dominican Republic impacted by devastating floods that damaged roads, bridges, and homes, and killed at least 21 people.
“They were able to assess the community, assemble kits, and distribute them to families,” Garcia-Pedroso said. “Within 48 hours of the tropical disturbance, they were already out distributing aid.”
In addition to providing emergency aid to countries after a disaster strikes, FFTP also is turning its attention to helping countries prepare for disasters well in advance with training and education. The charity recently partnered with World Vision Dominican Republic and the Ministry of Health to launch Fortalece, a new humanitarian project in the Dominican Republic to help communities build long-term resilience and risk-reduction in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, which struck the nation in 2022.
“A big portion of this project is working with communities and community leaders to increase their knowledge about how to respond to disasters,” Garcia-Pedroso said. “We’re also enhancing early warning systems to better equip local emergency and community leaders to facilitate greater awareness of incoming disasters.”
The program also includes cash-based vouchers of support for families that are still feeling effects from Hurricane Fiona. The charity is also working with the Ministry of Education to develop courses, manuals, and information on disaster risk reduction and response for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
“We believe it’s important to not just respond with goods, but to really think about the communities that are affected,” Garcia-Pedroso said. “We will always help them in the recovery aspect, but we also want them to be more resilient and more prepared for the next disaster.”
While FFTP’s mission primarily is to serve internationally in Latin America and the Caribbean, the charity also responds in the United States whenever it is able after hurricanes strike domestically. For example, the charity responded in North Florida in August 2023 after Hurricane Idalia, a powerful and destructive Category 4 hurricane, struck the southeastern United States. The charity sent 12 pallets of cleaning and hygiene supplies to help families recover from the storm. The goods were distributed in Madison County in Florida’s Big Bend region by community partners of the Florida United Methodist Conference and in Cross City by the Florida Catholic Conference.
This year, FFTP is pre-positioning one disaster kit with Catholic Charities of Raleigh, N.C., and reserving three kits for Catholic Charities USA to send to locations as needed. Two kits will remain in the FFTP Coconut Creek warehouse for other domestic responses that are not covered by Catholic Charities.
To make a donation in support of the FFTP Emergency Relief Program, please visit foodforthepoor.org/emergencyrelief.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 15 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit foodforthepoor.org.
Ernestine Williams
Communications
305-321-7342
[email protected]
