Churches to receive disaster preparedness booklets

A pandemic illness has forced area health departments to order all public gatherings halted to slow the spread of the illness.

A church pastor has officiated at 30 funerals of his friends and parishioners. How does a church survive and operate in such a disastrous scenario?

One group thinks preparedness will go a long way to supporting faith in God in helping churches, parishes and synagogues operate in any kind of emergency.

The Jasper County Pandemic Planning Committee is sending out booklets and digital video discs to more than 250 area churches with advice, information, and phone numbers geared to helping churches deal with a pandemic disease event on the magnitude of the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak, when 250,000 Americans were killed.

Tom Simpson, with the Regional Economic Development Center at Missouri Southern State University, said the booklet is meant as a guide for church leaders to deal with a pandemic illness or any kind of disaster.

"What we've produced here is a fairly extensive, fairly complete guide for churches, parishes and synagogues to plan for these unexpected events," Simpson said. "The idea is to make this available, free of charge, to every faith-based organization in our county. That material should be in their hands within the next week or so."

Rev. Steve Patterson with the Spring River Baptist Association, helped assemble the booklet that contains advice, information and telephone numbers people can use to get more information and stay informed in the event of a pandemic.

"Our hope is that the church leaders will sit down and look through it, pick out those areas that they need to address and make some plans for their parish," Simpson said.

"I hate to be dramatic, but if you look at the numbers of the existing pandemic flu victims and look at the numbers of victims of the existing bird flu in south Asia and you see these incredible numbers of people who are dying. What do you do when you have people in your community that are falling victim to any pandemic, not just the flu. These people are putting strains on every aspect of your community, especially the faith-based organizations."

The H5N1 strain of the avian influenza has cut a swath through south Asia's poultry and wild bird populations and has affected more than 350 people since 2003.
According to the World Health Organization, of the 371 people infected by avian influenza, 235 have died.

Currently, the H5N1 virus does not move from human to human easily, but health officials fear that as more people become infected with the virus, it might mutate into something just as deadly and more easily spread from human to human.

That could kick off the next deadly pandemic illness like the Spanish Flu in 1918 and 1919 and the Hong Kong Flu in the 1960s

"This is going to strike these organizations heavily and they've got to be prepared for it and try to mitigate what's going to happen to their community," Simpson said. "As hard as it's going to be, one thing may be social distancing, the idea that you gather on Sunday morning or whenever you gather, for that essential service, that may be impossible to do because it may be dangerous. What do you do then, how do you maintain that community of faith when you're not meeting together, so more reliance on one another, recognition of the need for isolation but communication, social distancing that may be required, there are some specific things that are recommended that I think the churches need to look at and need to consider."

Simpson said while the information is geared toward dealing with a pandemic illness, it could be used to prepare for any kind of disaster.

"It can be used for any number of different situations," Simpson said. "It's usable in any kind of disaster, tornado, severe weather. We just want people to be informed and ready to react and protect themselves."