Floyd County’s Emergency Management Agency director, Scotty Hancock, says that following disasters or emergency situations, there are certain tasks community volunteers can accomplish that
official responders cannot. “There are certain limitations that government agencies have to deal with,” he told those attending a Rome Kares Inc. Community Organization Active In Disaster meeting Thursday afternoon. “That’s where organizations like this come in.” Scotty Hancock talks to the group Thursday afternoon. Ken McKenzie, president of Rome Kares Inc., illustrated the importance of a COAD group by comparing the way New Orleans responded to Hurricane Katrina to the way Atlanta dealt with the March 2008 tornado that struck downtown. “New Orleans didn’t have a volunteer response organization,” he said, explaining that residents and responders were not prepared for such an event. “New Orleans is slowly dying. I hate to break the news to you. New Orleans will never be the way we used to know it.” Atlanta, on the other hand, had a COAD in place. “The reason Atlanta recovered as quickly as it did is because Atlanta has a really good COAD,” McKenzie said.
Those assembled Thursday included representatives from various churches, civic groups, charity organizations, local governments, and members of the public at large. The point of the meeting, according to Floyd County 211 director Jim Bradshaw, is to develop “a skill inventory bank.”