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Dallas-area Mass Care Task Force discusses disaster preparedness with local businesses

07:26 AM CDT on Friday, April 30, 2010

It could be a devastating tornado or a terrorist attack. No matter what kind of disaster strikes North Texas, emergency response agencies want to be ready.

The leaders of humanitarian organizations involved in a local Mass Care Task Force met Thursday with local business executives to generate support for a $26 million preparedness effort.

The task force includes the chief executive officers of the American Red Cross Dallas Area chapter, the North Texas Food Bank, the Salvation Army Metroplex Area Command and the Volunteer Center of North Texas. The agencies provide food and shelter in large-scale disaster.

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert , who spoke at the event at the Volunteer Center's Dallas offices, said local government, humanitarian organizations and businesses must work together because the entire region will be judged by how it responds to a catastrophe.

"We never know when it is. We never know what it is," Leppert said. "We certainly know it's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

The task force was formed in 2006 to improve the response after hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought thousands to North Texas in the fall of 2005. The goal is to become more efficient and avoid duplicating efforts, officials said.

"What we realized in the midst of that response was, we could do it better," said Jan Pruitt, president and chief executive officer of the North Texas Food Bank.

The task force has determined that it would cost $26 million to shelter 37,500 people for 10 days after a powerful tornado affecting 250,000 people locally. That would include the costs of food ($3.9 million), shelter ($17.2 million), other supplies and volunteer coordination.

So far, the group has raised about $1.2 million. Gary Kelly, chairman of the board, president and chief executive of Southwest Airlines , said his company committed $345,000 to the effort. Last year, the Communities Foundation of Texas announced that it would provide matching funds through a $5 million grant from its W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation fund.

Task force members meet regularly and participated Tuesday in a drill in which they had to respond to a fictional scenario of a terrorist plane hitting a jet flying over the State Fair of Texas .

In the event of a disaster, people will want to help. The volunteer center is working to avoid the rush of help from becoming a "disaster within a disaster," said Julie Thomas, the center's chief executive. The center's phones crashed three times during Katrina, but the agency has since received a grant from the Communities Foundation of Texas to buy a new call center.

Volunteers, who are being recruited, will need to be trained and undergo criminal background checks in advance.

"The last thing you need is an inappropriate person in a shelter where people have already been shocked and traumatized," Thomas said.

For more information, visit the task force website.