Disaster planning and response has always been of importance on Long Island, but given the events of recent history, it has become a top priority. In the days and months after 9/11, governmental and health and human service organizations worked painstakingly to respond to the disaster. Given the unprecedented scale of the disaster in the U.S., history could offer no appropriate paradigm to guide all levels of emergency response. There were no existing systems to provide clear, reliable information to the thousands of traumatized victims or to equip the nonprofit and governmental organizations working to manage the crisis at hand. Within a short time, it became resoundingly clear that more formalized coordination would be critical.

OUR WORK
Post-9/11, it became evident that stronger collaborative and coordinative efforts among human service agencies and government were needed to ensure that an effective emergency management and recovery system was in place. The Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (LIVOAD) was established in December 2001, with support from a number of human services organizations and government agencies to:

* foster a coordinated approach
* identify what services would be needed
* develop an efficient way to deliver them.

Today, the Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster is a regional coalition of nonprofit, government and for-profit organizations committed to working together in the areas of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

Since October 2012, when superstorm Sandy devastated parts of Long Island and left most of its residents powerless for days, HWCLI, in its role as a coordinator of LIVOAD, has facilitated communication between nonprofit agencies providing assistance to storm victims and emergency management officials from the local, state, and federal governments. It has also convened the LIVOAD’s Hurricane Sandy Long Term Recovery Group to organize the assistance efforts of health and human agencies for storm-affected families months and possibly years into the future.

JOIN OUR TEAM
Agencies are welcome to join the LIVOAD. Members support each other through their collaborative planning efforts to identify potential needs of disaster victims and develop coordinated and efficient delivery of needed resources and services, as well as to ensure those affected by large-scale disaster receive the help they need, in both the short- and long-term, and as quickly and effectively as possible.

The Long Term Recovery Group that is working on Sandy response, as well as its subcommittees, meets regularly. For more information, email mashford-grooms@hwcli.com.