Making the Best Case of a Worst Case Scenario*

*This is a report from an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. They served excellent pastries.
Areas where citizens have a geographically large sense of community can better handle the conflicts between local and federal government that make disaster recovery and preparation difficult.
The conflict between federal and local government during disasters was the focus of a National Press Club conference, "Expert Voices in Disaster Recovery," by the Disaster Recovery Contractors Association June 26.
One of the most successful disaster recovery programs in recent years was the flooding in Colorado in fall 2013, because citizens of the larger counties and states typical of the American West could act in concert with residents of different areas to prevent problems. Flooding prevention in the East has been less cohesive.
"A number of efforts at mitigation 40 years ago made floods two years ago worse," said Glenn Cannon, director of the Pennsylvania Management Agency.
Disaster recovery, especially the long-term solutions, work best from the grassroots up with the state government providing infrastructure. Cannon used a pilot program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the disaster recovery of Pennsylvania's  worst floods in decades.
The pilot program involved all existing community and state organizations that might have useful tools. This decreased the redundancy and cost that comes with creating new organizations for emergencies, but convincing some state agencies that had not previously been involved in disaster relief to help required political strong-arming, Cannon said.
Convincing community members that they have a stake in long-term recovery can require some short-term concessions. Opening up the local Wal-Mart or Lowes might now seem like a first priority in disaster relief, but Cannon said it provided psychological benefits by giving people a sense of normality and a resource to start rebuilding. 
Thad Allen of Booz Allen said he noticed a similar phenomenon as the principal federal official over Hurricane Katrina. He realized he would need to close the food shelters so the other elements of civil society - in this case, the local waffle house - could begin to operate.
Hazards to cooperation between local and federal officials include losing sight of the goal.
"Once those [professional] teams were asked to work with local stakeholders, they got whittled down to short-term thinking," said Columbia Professor Klaus Jacob.
For Joseph Nimmich of FEMA, the is that access to resources from higher-up gives people a false sense of hope for a return to pre-disaster life, when in reality, "a disaster is a life-changing event."
For example, local government has urged citizens who left their flooded homes to return to avoid losing tax revenue. For example, 250,000 New Orleans residents sought shelter in another state during Hurricane Katrina, but although their homes were destroyed, local government officials urged them to return in hopes of avoiding losing a seat in the House of Representatives after the next census.
Federal oversight can help locals to think about the future while recovering from past disasters.
"When you rebuild, you have to think about the extraordinary flood which always seems to come along," Jacob said.

Covered Bridge Festival in Woolwine, VA

Neighbors and newcomers alike celebrated Virginia's heritage and the renovation of a historic landmark at the Covered Bridge Festival in Woolwine, Va. on June 21.
The Patrick County chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans presented the names of all the area's Civil War veterans, then fired a cannon three times to honor the county's veterans.
"There's a misconception about [the Civil War]," said Barry Morrison, a Woolwine native with Confederate soldiers on both sides of his family. "It was about state's rights. It wasn't about slavery, because these people here in this community couldn't afford slaves."
Morrison, a member of the Covered Bridge Committee that paid and organized renovations one of Woolwine's two bridges, sold almost 200 commemorative covered bridge ornaments at the festival. He has a long history with the Jack's Creek Bridge, which now functions only as a footbridge because the highway rerouted in 1979.
"I have ridden a school bus through that bridge, and the bus has scraped both sides going through," he said.
The bridge was built in 1914, and the names, initials, and hopes of Stuart County's bridge-users are part of the bridge's protected inside. The earliest discernible mark is from 1934.
The Patrick County Historical Society hosted a booth illustrating parts of daily life a century earlier. Vendors sold food and handmade crafts.
The area's Bible Belt heritage was not forgotten either. The festival began with a prayer and included a booth by the Grace Baptist Church, where Pastor Mark Elkins asked passerby to consider the "million-dollar question" of personal salvation.
Two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also helped by supervising a bounce house for the children.
Madison Weber, a missionary from Utah, said the community's focus on its roots and on unity impressed her. 
"The hospitality of people around here clearly shows what's important to them," she said.
Shannon Simmons, a missionary from Idaho, said the community's small town appeal is authentic - the people really know and take care of each other, and they have been quick to help her though she is a newcomer.
"Everybody here knows each other so well that we'll knock on someone's door, and they'll say, 'You talked to my cousin last week,'" she said.
Patrick County has two of Virginia's seven covered bridges, which is necessary as five rivers begin in the county. The Covered Bridge Committee put on the festival to celebrate the community's heritage, but its next goal is to commence renovations on the nearby Bob White Bridge. They sold almost 200 covered bridge ornaments at the festival to start the fundraising effort.
* If you have trouble seeing the video, try here.

Out to Gettysburg

My favorite mini-trip was last Saturday, when I went out to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The director of the program I am interning for was a history teacher in a previous life, so he said that if we asked nicely, he would take us on an exclusive tour of the Gettysburg battleground. I talked to him and we organized a trip for three fellow interns and me. He drove us to the battlefield, which is about two hours from Washington, D.C. He described the events of the Civil War up to that point as we drove. I was amazed by the beauty of the scenery we passed. I never thought that Virginia and Pennsylvania could be so lovely and lush, although I scoffed at the so-called "mountains" we passed.

The Pennsylvania monument features a balcony that you can climb to look out on the battlefield.

This is the only monument to a chaplain. He was stationed with an Irish Catholic unit from the Union. Before the battle began, he granted the entire unit absolution for their sins, then told his Fighting Irish that the church would not give a Christian burial to anyone who turned back in cowardice. That unit had an 82 percent casualty rate in the charge, but they took and kept their position.

The South charged from the right side of the road on Day One of battle. The monument shown features a dog named Sally. The night after Day One of battle, Sally refused to leave the Union unit she was with - she stayed with the wounded and the dead all night long. Her protection was important - some of the farmer's hogs had gotten loose and escaped onto the battlefield, where they nosed about among the dead and the helpless wounded all night long. Sally, however, refused to leave her unit until the army eventually came from them when a truce was declared. She was killed in a later battle.

Gettysburg is still a tiny and charming town today. During the battle, the Southern Army chased the Northern troops through the town, and they fought between buildings and in the streets. The Southern soldiers then raided the homes, refusing to allow the townspeople to harbor even wounded soldiers. When the battle was over, the people of Gettysburg were left to bury the dead and care for the Union wounded. The Confederate wounded, meanwhile, were taken back to the South in a wagon train that stretched a full 17 miles behind the Southern Army.

The wheat field is where the misnamed Pickett's Charge occurred, where the proud Southern line was broken into chaos. The field changed sides six times, meaning the soldiers would literally have been running over the top of their dead and wounded comrades over and over again as they charged back and forth across the field.

The wheat field changed hands six times. Journals say that when the battle was over, you could walk across the entire field and never touch the ground because it was covered with the dead and wounded.

The picture below shows where the main Union army cannons were stationed on Day Two. Journals say that when the fighting stopped for the night, the field looked like it was full of writhing snakes, because the wounded were crawling for water or help, and neither side dared go out until they negotiated a short truce on July 4.

The ironic thing is that, up to that point, the South had won eight out of nine of the battles, and the North had won zero, tied one. The battle of Gettysburg lasted for three days, and the South won Days One and Two. The only thing that kept them from routing the North once and for all was one far-thinking Union General Howe, who decided to fortify the hills around Gettysburg in case they needed to retreat, but the only reason the North had those hills to begin with was because of a miscommunication between Southern generals about where to fight! The fortified hills convinced a war-weary South to retreat for the night and then fight another day, and on that third day, they lost for the first time in the war. The North simply held the hills, which forced the South to run at the fortifications while cannon fire rained down. The North won only by a combination of luck and refusing to relinquish the high ground.

This is Little Round Top, a steep hill that the Union Army barely held on Day Two. The Union soldiers had to carry the cannon to the top by hand because it was too steep for horses. The Alabama unit ran up the front side seven times in repeated charges.

Into the Wild

This was a very busy week following a very busy weekend, so on Saturday morning I went on a relaxing hike with the ward to get into nature. I had not realized previously that people hiked in nature on this side of the country, so this was a pleasant surprise:

 We hiked along the Potomac River at Great Falls, Virginia. I must say, I am thoroughly enjoying the charms of the area thus far. The area is wilder than I expected the East to be, greener than I usually think of anything being, and has more character than I had even hoped!

Lest readers get the idea that I am not working very hard out here, I should report a little on the work-week. I reported on several interesting issues. For one thing, I watched President Obama's commencement address at West Point on Wednesday, as the rumor was that he was outlining his foreign policy going forward. This was exciting because I remembered that Payson's own Isaac Cluff was graduating from West Point, so I watched him receive his diploma and delighted in the fame and dignity coming to my hometown.
I also attended a panel about the impact of India's recent election on religious liberty. It was quite lively because, since the election just happened, no one can say for sure what will happen. Afterward, a man in a Sikh turban, who said he was Indian, pulled me aside. He urged me not to report that religious liberty is threatened in India, because his experience with India's religious diversity had always been positive, in fact, more positive than in America.
Over dinner that night, I described the whole experience to a friend who has studied in India, and she pointed out that India has a population of 1.2 billion and a long history of religious plurality.