Katrina Disaster Response

Disaster Response Guidelines

The following guidelines are designed to help the community respond in ways that are consistent with longstanding Red Cross Preparedness advice:

  • The primary concerns for relief organizations at this time are to ensure the safety of all the people affected by the disaster, provide food and shelter, and reunite separated family members within the affected area.
  • Due to outages in service or overload of telephone circuits and evacuations in the area, it may be difficult for individuals to get in touch with people in the area. Remind members of the community that the Red Cross and other relief organizations have the same problems with communications as the general public and are often restricted by emergency personnel from even going into many of the disaster areas.
  • If there are any medical concerns about people in the region, please refer individuals to Tompkins County Chapter of the American Red Cross: (607) 273-1900.
  • Members of the community with all other concerns for sought persons besides medical, should pursue the following options to find people in the region effected by Hurricane Katrina:
    • Make phone calls during off-peak hours—call in the early morning or after 10 p.m. and throughout the night, when phone-calls are more likely to get through. Be patient, as phone service will be spotty with volumes of calls being made to the disaster area.
    • Email—Try sending an email to the sought person, as they may have evacuated to an area where email can be accessed.
    • Friends or Relatives—Think of other friends or relatives that the sought person may have contacted first and call or email them.
    • Other phone numbers—Try calling a neighbor, employer, co-workers, school or place of worship of the sought person. Also, if the person goes routinely to a location (eg. senior citizen center, social club, fraternal organization, etc.) try contacting that organization—they may know the person's whereabouts.
    • Use Internet Resources—Web sites such as the Ultimate White Pages can help to verify the contact number and address for the sought person and to access phone numbers for additional contact persons or other resources.
    • Monitor the news media—The news will make announcements as phone lines get restored. (Note: repeatedly viewing images of the disaster area may increase feelings of anxiety.)
    • Send a letter to the sought person—Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope when sending mail to a sought person. Keep in mind that the since mail has either been forwarded to a new location or will be picked up later on, it may take longer than usual to get a response.
  • There may be many individuals on campus who have friends and family in the region affected by Hurricane Katrina. Also, some people may be disturbed by the images of the region that are being shown in the media. For the short and long term, members of the campus community should know that they can use the following local and campus resources if at any time they are feeling depressed, anxious or disturbed by the images they've seen of the disaster area:
    • Counseling Center—Ithaca College has a counseling center which is available to help IC students, free of charge. Cornell's Gannett Health Center has a Counseling and Psychological Services division (CAPS) that gives counseling to Cornell students.
    • Peer Couseling—Peer Counseling is also available at Cornell through Empathy, Assistance, and Referral Service (EARS).
    • Residential Life Staff—Residential Assistants and Residence Directors have the most personal contact with students living on campus. They should act as a resource and support for the community.
    • Crisis Hotline and After-trauma Counseling (local resource)—Counselors are available 24/7 at the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service (SPCS)'s local crisis line for phone support with the traumatic impact of the hurricane. In the case of a death or life-threatening situation, individuals will be referred by the crisis line counselors to a trauma specialist. The 24-hour Crisis line is (607) 272-1616. The after-trauma service can be reached at (607) 272-1505. Both services are free and confidential. In addition to helping with the immediate impact of the hurricane, counselors can help to create a long-term plan and provide referrals for other needs.
    • Ongoing Mental Health Support (local resource)—Referrals for ongoing mental health services provided off-campus can be made either through the campus counseling center or by calling The Mental Health Association in Tompkins County (607) 273-9250. Local therapists are available to see people on an immediate basis.
    • Spiritual Support—Spiritual support is available at Cornell United Religious Works and Ithaca College's Interfaith Council.
  • Students living off-campus may feel cut-off from community and support services provided by their university. Efforts should be made by campus communities to reach out to those individuals, provide information, support, and assure off-campus students that they are welcome to speak with Residential Life staff, etc. should they feel the need.