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Disaster Relief Donations: Who, What, When, and Why

Often times the information disseminated related to disaster events is not always enough for people to know when to give and who to help. Organizations involved with key information and long-term recovery rely upon donations to help those with unmet disaster-related needs.

Immediate needs for food and shelter are addressed by the organizations that must maintain resources to meet this need. Once the survivors are faced with repairs and rebuilding, decisions after a few weeks raises the question of “Do they have enough money”. This question cannot be answered until insurance companies and governmental agencies complete their assessments, which vary in length of time.

Charitable organizations that help fill the needs for repairs and rebuilding are primarily based on donations. From 1989-2011, the total damages from weather related disasters were $220 billion, or an average of $15.7 billion a year. The year 2011 was especially vicious, with a record-breaking 1,600 tornadoes causing more than $25 billion in damages, surpassing records for the most tornadoes in a single month and daily. Since 2012, the county is still on track for this costly weather related events. Hurricane Sandy was estimated at over $50 billion in damages alone.

The agencies that are part of the long term recovery are always at the mercy of donations.

They help with the under insured, uninsured, special needs population that include the elderly. In addition, people have lost their jobs due to long term damage and destruction of facilities as well as the psychological effects.

Unity in Disasters, Inc

Unity in Disasters “Seven Scenarios of Support” in disaster relief are described by the time frames as follows:

1) 72 hours

2) 7 days

3) 14 days

4) 30 days

5) 90 days

6) 6 months

7) 12 months

Unity in Disasters, Inc participates in response in order to determine a more accurate picture of unmet relief needs that cover the first three scenarios. In addition, we participate in recovery through case management, which covers scenarios four, five, and six.

We created this concept to provide the communities with a better understanding of the stages and timeframes to help assist in their recovery from disasters.

This is a follow up to our previous article titled, “Donations: Who, What, When, and Why”.

4/12/13

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