By Jeff Brumley
It’s called “compassion adrenaline” when someone feels a nearly overwhelming urge to help others in need, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Tommy Deal felt a wave of it coming his way Thursday night.
As huge, violent storms broiled over the Midwest and Southeast Deal, CBF’s national disaster-response coordinator, knew folks would be eager for instructions on how to help.
So Deal hopped onto Facebook shortly before 10 p.m. and posted a message as “a vivid reminder that we are NOT first responders, as much as our adrenaline pumps and wants us to.” He added that CBF was busily contacting churches in the impacted areas and would begin doing assessments as soon as safely possible.
The moment was an example of two realities that face many faith-based disaster-relief agencies: That constituents’ eagerness must often be tempered by slowly developing realities on the ground and that Facebook, Twitter and similar venues are becoming an increasingly important way to accomplish that.
“What we are finding is that we can use social media to temper that almost sense of panic that ‘I have to do it now,’” said Harry Rowland, facilitator of the North American Baptist Fellowship’s disaster-response network.
The key is to consistently post Facebook messages and tweets, in addition to using whatever e-mail chains that may be in place, letting members know that organizations are monitoring and assessing situations with plans to eventually act, Rowland said.
“They don’t mind waiting if they feel like somebody is at work,” he said. “It gives them a sense that they don’t have to do it right now.”
The most recent storm spawned tornadoes and pounding thunderstorms from Missouri and Mississippi beyond. One death each was reported in Mississippi, Missouri and Nebraska.
Deal told ABPnews that he’s in close touch with CBF churches, and that he was keeping an especially close eye on Mississippi where the twister caused one fatality. As of Friday morning he had no damage assessments to report.
“We have to start with our church connections and make sure they are OK and see what their needs are,” Deal said.
The late-evening Facebook post in part was to buy him and assessors in the states time to start compiling lists of needs and services to be provided by other agencies. Deal said he, too, has caught himself itching to act before the process is complete.
“The heart tells me I need to go and do something, but then I have to remember that there is an organized way in which to be welcomed” by local authorities, he said. “That’s to honor their direction and instruction and not to go in like the cavalry.”
It’s also remembering that CBF’s specialty is long-term response. Long after other secular and faith-based agencies are gone, CBF often remains helping disaster victims, Deal said.
“Events like this remind us that we need to be prepared as families, as church communities and as an organization,” he said.
