Tag Archives: Disaster Preparedness
Where You Gonna Run To? Cultural Heritage Continuation and the Intersectionality of Calamity
…those that truly see the world devastation attached to the spiritual degradation that has led people to being so self absorbed that they are more interested in their distractions than they are in focusing on ways to heal the planet, find ourselves almost unable to rise from our knees to work since we are consistently crying out to GOD to hold back the storms and heal the land. If the root cause of climate change is truly anthropocene and climate inaction has produced and will continue to produce more human health issues from heat induced sicknesses to pandemics and will continue to threaten our food security by bringing about ocean acidification, drought, and wildfires amongst a sundry lists of other issues, “Oh sinner man, where you gonna run to?”
Protecting the Gullah/Geechee Nation Amidst the Flood Waters
Because equitable policy starts with elevating community voices, the American Flood
Coalition and the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management convened a
roundtable series with the leaders of eight CBOs, each representing a historically underserved
community affected by flooding including the Gullah/Geechee Nation.
Support Gullah/Geechee Rising SEA and Help #GullahGeechee Resiliency
The Gullah/Geechee community that has been self-sufficient and resilient in this area since the 1600s is now faced with an on-slaught of challenges to the continuation of their culture on their own land which has been passed down since the US Civil War. They are not only dealing with issues of economic inequity, but also environmental injustice which has and continues to cause displacement of Gullah/Geechee from the southeastern coast. For those that remain there, they are literally on the front shoreline of climate change and sea level rise.
Gullah/Geechee Nation Flooding and Emergency Management
Although Hurricane Florence has long left the Gullah/Geechee Nation, the remnants of the massive down pours of rain and storm water still remain. Rivers are still rising through the Carolinas. Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) and Founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition (www.GullahGeechee.net) and the Wisdom Circle Council of Elders and Representatives of the Gullah/Geechee Nation have been coordinating emergency management and recovery efforts in collaboration with the Black Emergency Management Association (BEMA).
In order to provide financial support for the efforts, please donate at these links and share them with your networks:
https://www.gofundme.com/GullahGeecheeStorm
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/schurricanerelief
Safety, Disaster, and Storm Preparation in the Gullah/Geechee Nation
I have lived through several hurricanes on St. Helena Island, SC in the Gullah/Geechee Nation. I have also been engaged in disaster preparedness and climate change planning in the Gullah/Geechee Nation and other parts of the world. More than all of this, I am a person of faith. However, I do not simply pray-I prepare. So, as I pray and I prepare, GOD has called me to also share.
Living Through Matthew in the #GullahGeechee Nation
As the coverage of #HurricaneMatthew continued and we prayed unceasingly for the islands of our kins people-Haiti, the Bahamas, and Cuba, we also prayed for all in this pathway of what was going to take every thing from the pages and the Powerpoint presentations of scientific reports and predictions about sea level rise and storm surge and place it on the center stage of real life after having rehearsed as theories. I wondered if the people that I worked with in so many meetings to discuss resilience and adaptation would now be paying attention to the cultural heritage aspects of all of this. I also wondered if equity entered their minds. SMH I continued praying while staying.
Gullah/Geechee Leaders Train the US Environmental Protection Agency on Community Engagement
The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition (www.gullahgeechee.net) has worked with the United States Environmental Protection Agency for over 16 years. They have continued this partnership in order to gain more knowledge on how to protect and sustain the Sea Islands of the Gullah/Geechee Nation. Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com), who is the …
Disaster Preparedness and Food Security in the Face of Climate Change
by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) I recently had the honor of being invited to deliver a keynote address at Chicago State University. I was part of a group of passionate people from the Fuller Park Community Development Corporation. Brother Michael Howard, the CEO and Founder of Fuller Park Community Development …