FEMA grant will help disadvantaged communities prepare for disasters
DCRP alumnus teams with CURS to protect communities


With the 2005 hurricane season quickly in full effect, MDC Inc. and the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have received a $1.5 million grant from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help disadvantaged communities in
six states and the District of Columbia prepare for disasters.


The Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program will be conducted through a partnership between MDC,
an independent nonprofit research organization based in Chapel Hill, and the Center for Urban and Regional
Studies (CURS) in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences.  MDC will be the lead partner for the two-year program,
which will alert residents to the hazards of natural, technological and manmade disasters and communicate
what they can do to be better prepared. 

 "FEMA wanted to engage the community in this process, which is a strength of MDC," said Dr. John Cooper,
who received his doctorate from DCRP in 2004.  Cooper, who worked for the state Division of Emergency Management
for two years, will be the project manager and lead researcher at MDC.  "We'll be looking at how better equipped
communities are after the demonstration projects to not only take on emergency preparedness and response, but
other issues as well.  Have we created new leaders?  Is there an organization in place that has taken on the role
of community awareness?"

"We'll be looking at why the message about emergency preparedness is not getting through to these disadvantaged
communities," said lead UNC researcher Dr. Philip R. Berke, DCRP professor and faculty fellow at CURS.   "We
want to use communities' knowledge and leadership to build their capacity to take self-directed, disaster-reduction
initiatives.  The action plans developed by the communities will focus on reducing the harm of future disasters."

Berke, whose research and teaching interests are in land use and environmental planning, said FEMA chose
communities affected by Hurricane Isabel because the storm created a vast area of destruction and a lot of
disadvantaged communities were affected by the hurricane.  

The program will be carried out in Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and
Washington, D.C., all of which received major presidential disaster declarations as a result of damages inflicted by
Hurricane Isabel in 2003.  The program will conduct extensive research on disaster awareness, develop culturally
sensitive information and education materials, provide technical assistance and document the successes after
community-based "demonstration projects" in selected areas.

MDC focuses on expanding opportunity, reducing poverty and building inclusive civic cultures in the South and other
regions.  Its core strategies include developing responsive public policies, demonstrating effective programs, building
institutional and community capacity for progress and informing the public dialogue.

CURS conducts and supports research on urban and regional affairs - research that helps build healthy, sustainable
communities nationwide and worldwide.


Researchers will examine the following questions both before and after the demonstration projects
in various communities:
• Has the community's capacity to undertake coordinated action to develop and implement emergency preparedness
  plans improved?
• Has the knowledge and understanding of what to do in preparation for a disaster been raised?
• What are the actual activities and plans that have been developed, such as individual household and community
  emergency plans, evacuation routes, etc.?