Disaster management and the Black Church

By Arealia Muhammad | Last updated: Sep 21, 2006 - 2:18:00 PM

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Participants work on disaster exercises.

(FinalCall.com) - August 29 marked the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and Black churches nationwide held many activities in honor and remembrance of the victims. Mainstream news outlets focused on the recovery and billions of dollars raised for victims of Katrina while Black media outlets spotlighted the plight, grief, despair, disappointment, lack of recovery and questions surrounding the response and recovery efforts for the poor, displaced and homeless.

Over 1,000 Black churches were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and their congregations were dispersed over the United States. This number represented every religious denomination. Is this what Jesus meant when he said Judgment will start in the House of God? Does it matter that Katrina was a natural or man-made disaster? Why did God permit such scattering of the religious flocks of the world?

Katrina exposed the lack of disaster management training and preparedness in the Black Church. Many Black clergy, regardless of denomination, found their hands tied behind their backs to get access to the suffering victims of Katrina. They were either used, along with our Black stars, by the Red Cross to help raise millions of dollars for the victims, were regulated to sit on the sidelines, given limited access to victims, or were made to wait by the phone for the Red Cross to call them back after offering non-cash assistance.

Due to the lack of disaster management training, many of our churches and organizations had to “wing it.” Many did the best they could and exhausted their own church funds, while they waited for the “disaster experts” to tell them what to do or where to go, just like the victims of Katrina who sat in the Superdome in Houston and Convention Center in New Orleans.

Gary Szatkowski of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gives a presentation during the recent disaster management training seminar organized by the Millions More Movement Local Organizing Committee in Trenton, NJ.

Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad covered both the prophecies of the Bible and Holy Qur’an in a single word: disasters. They instructed the people what to do and why the disasters were taking place. Noah built an ark as he warned the people about a flood and was told by God what food and provisions needed to go on the ark. Abraham tried to find one person who believed to help him warn the people about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which scientists believe was a volcanic eruption. Moses warned the slaves and Pharaoh about the plagues coming to Egypt and how to prepare for them. When the Red Sea parted (a tsunami), the slaves who believed made it across, while those who doubted drowned with Pharaoh and his army. Jesus taught people what they should eat and store in their homes. Muhammad constantly reminded the tribes of Arabia about the history of past peoples and their destruction from natural disasters.

Since last year, the Millions More Movement local organizing committees (MMM-LOC) have been on the frontline in conducting disaster management workshops. Minister Farrakhan has toured the country encouraging all churches, mosques and organizations to conduct disaster preparedness and management training.

The MMM-LOC is offering disaster management training, with no- strings-attached courses, to churches, LOC’s and community-based organizations interested in training inner city and high risk populations. Experienced disaster management instructors from Mexico to the East Coast of the U.S. are training thousands of people in churches, schools and mosques to train their most vulnerable populations in this field of study. Functioning without any government grant or paycheck, the MMM-LOC disaster management trainers reflect the charitable spirit of the ‘Good Samaritan’ in the Bible.

(This is the second article in a four-part series on Disaster Management and the Millions More Movement. Classes and training materials are also available in Spanish. Arealia Muhammad is an International Disaster Management Instructor with over 15 years experience. She can be contacted via email at [email protected].)

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