Caroline Griffith, NEC Executive Director
From increased wildfires to intensifying storm systems, our changing climate is contributing to more severe weather and natural disasters. Many of us in Northern California and Southern Oregon seem to be getting used to longer and more intense fire seasons, or to losing power due to storms, and the fact is that we can expect extreme weather to get worse as climate change intensifies. According to a 2021 report from the World Meteorological Organization, the number of natural disasters worldwide has increased five-fold over the last 50 years, driven in part by climate change and extreme weather. And, of course, there are natural disasters that aren’t affected by climate change, like the recent 6.4 earthquake that left residents of Rio Dell without water or power for days. It can be overwhelming to think about what to do in the face of a disaster, but luckily, preparing for disasters before they strike can not only help us weather them better, but also help strengthen community ties while making us less reliant on the systems and corporations that currently have so much control over our lives.
Disaster preparedness can take many different forms. From individuals or families making sure they have a disaster plan and that they have their go-bags ready with water, food, flashlights and emergency supplies; to joining your local ham radio club to help communicate when phone lines go down. On a larger scale, it can be autonomous Mutual Aid networks of people sharing food and skills; neighbors forming a Resilience Hub to support residents, coordinate communication, distribute resources, and reduce carbon pollution; or highly organized coalitions of community groups pooling resources and expertise to make sure people’s basic needs are met.
What is Mutual Aid?
Mutual Aid is a concept that has been around for centuries but was popularized by the Black Panther Party as it worked to address the disaster of racial capitalism in the inner cities of the 1960s. In response to the needs of the community that were not being met by local government, the Panthers developed free school breakfast programs for children, children’s development centers, housing cooperatives, free ambulances and medical centers. These programs not only met the needs of the community, but also decreased reliance on outside help which allowed for self-determination within the community. Notably, they arose from the community itself rather than being imposed by outside authorities.
The idea of Mutual Aid had a resurgence in popularity during the beginning of the pandemic as people were organizing to make sure that folks had their basic needs met when they weren’t able to work. Mutual Aid networks tend to be very localized groups operating under the mantra of “Solidarity, not Charity.” Much like the early programs of the Black Panthers the goal isn’t to just meet people’s needs in the moment of disaster, but to increase community self-reliance and self-determination outside of disaster scenarios and to make the community stronger. Locally, Mutual Aid networks exist in various forms around Humboldt County. The structure of these networks changes depending on which community they are in, but they tend to be decentralized and nonhierarchical, meaning that there is no central person or authority leading the response. As such, communication and collaboration are key to the success of Mutual Aid efforts.
Coordinate, Cooperate, Communicate and Collaborate
Many of the same principles of community self-reliance exist on a more institutional scale with Humboldt COAD, which stands for Community Organizations Active in Disaster. When the December 20, 2022 earthquake hit, the groundwork laid by Humboldt COAD was evident as the nonprofits, tribes, volunteer organizations, governments and businesses involved sprang into action to help those in need of food, shelter, and animal care. Humboldt COAD focuses on the “4 C’s”: Coordinate, Cooperate, Communicate and Collaborate, a mantra that can apply to disaster preparedness from a regional scale on down to a neighborhood scale.
Coordination means that those involved identify their various areas of expertise that they have and what gaps exist so they can fill the gaps and avoid duplicating each others’ efforts. On a neighborhood scale, this could mean finding out what skills and resources you and your neighbors have that might be needed in an emergency. Within an organized group like a Mutual Aid network or the Humboldt COAD, often this coordination happens within different working groups that are focused on specific skills or needs, such as Food, Transportation, Child Care, Mental Health, or Legal Aid. Knowing the skills of the people within your sphere also provides the opportunity to share them through trainings and skillshares, which are another way to build community and self-reliance.
Communication is key to both disaster preparedness and community resilience. This means effective and clear channels of communication within your group, but also with the rest of the community. During the response to the earthquake, groups involved with Humboldt COAD were able to coordinate hot food preparation through speedy communication between restaurants and grocery stores that were at risk of losing food because refrigeration systems were down, and food truck operators who didn’t need electricity to cook who were ready to help. The success of the effort was also reliant on being able to get the word out to those in need of a hot meal, which they were able to do because lines of communication had been established well before disaster struck.
Cooperation and collaboration go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing. Cooperation means working together across disciplines towards a common goal. Collaboration means creating shared solutions to meet the community’s needs. Both of these concepts are crucial for building community resilience since the goal of self-reliance is dependent upon the community collectively coming up with shared solutions and cooperatively implementing them. As one representative of Humboldt COAD who spoke to EcoNews said, “Disasters are chaos.” So establishing relationships (both between individuals and groups) based in cooperation and collaboration before disaster strikes is key to disaster response.
Regardless of what form your preparedness takes, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not if a disaster happens, it’s when. That may sound alarmist, but by shifting our mindsets to think of disaster preparedness as a way of building community connection and resilience we can make it a positive endeavor that will benefit us regardless of the situation.