[UPDATED: 10/3/2024: I added the National Water Dashboard link under the “Google Maps” heading.]

Disasters and MPD

Mike and I have our envelopes ready for an MPD ask, but the current disaster pulled me up short. Hurricane Helene has been more than catastrophic.

Find Your Friends

Take the time to find out if anyone you know is in the disaster zone. Here’s some ways to find out.

Google Maps

“Natural disaster icons” and road closure symbols on Google Maps show where flooding has closed access to areas. (See screenshot.)

With your Google Map open, go to the USGS National Water Dashboard. The blue dots on this map show where flooding is probably occuring.

Facebook

Find out if your friends are safe through Facebook.

• Open up Facebook and click on the upper right grid of black squares.
• Search for and click on Crisis Response.
• Scroll down to Friends’ activity.
• “Hurricane Helene Across Southeaster US” is the first window in the list as I write this.
• Follow this to receive updates from your friends who check-in.
• Open the window.

Each person listed had reported in or not. For me, five people were “marked safe,” but none were the names I was looking for.

• I went to the “Safety Check” area on the right.
• I clicked on the “see all” button. I noticed many of the names were actually outside the flood zone.
• I had the option to see a friend’s post or to ask if they were safe.
• If they posted, you can comment.

Next, I’ll look in my address list for people I may know in the area that Facebook did not pull up. I checked my North Carolina names and will do the Tennessee names next. So far, no one is in the flood zone.

Other Tools

I wrote an extensive post about the online tools available for tracking various types of disasters. See  Online Disaster-Tracking Tools.

Wikipedia has an extensive article with state-by-state reports about Hurricane Helene.

Contact Them

Your friends may not have power, Internet, or cell phone services. They also may not have the time to respond on social media or to answer an email or a phone message. Depending on your relationship with them, you can try these anyway. Determine the best and most meaningful way to contact them.

Postal service will probably not be available in the North Carolina flood zones for a long time. For others, send a letter expressing your concern and prayers. You don’t know if this will reach them but include a stamped envelope with stationery for them to write you back.  This will be easier for them, but they still might not have time to reply.

Mike and I went through three hurricanes in six weeks in 2004. We have a bit of first-hand knowledge about recovering from severe damage (but nothing as devastating as having a home obliterated!) I have a few blog posts from my personal blogs you may feel free to use to encourage your friends and family. See NOTES.

Minister to Them

You may want to do more than communicate with them.

Pray for them.  Follow God’s leading.

If they did suffer damage or loss, don’t forget them. It takes months, and even years, to recover from disasters.

Change Your Plans

If I discover they might be affected, I’m ready to take some people off of our “ask list” for 2024.

I haven’t been a good prayer person for our MPD team, so today is a good day to start praying for them.

Take some time to minister to your financial and prayer partners today!

NOTES:

• I have several articles about our hurricane experiences on my personal blog, MikeandSus.org. I picked out two that have thoughts on evangelism.
  • “Disastrophe”
  • Putting an End to the Tragedies
  • Read other posts with applications by searching “disaster.”
• MPD is Ministry Partner Development.
• The photo is a screenshot of Google Maps between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina. (September 30, 2024.)