Hurricane Dennis provides test for new disaster response plan

Published: 2005-07-14

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) -- Less than 24 hours after Hurricane Dennis churned ashore July 10, Deacon Richard Turcotte was in Tallahassee, the vanguard of an unprecedented relief effort. As the CEO of Catholic Charities in the Miami Archdiocese, the deacon heads the agency's disaster response team, which was ordered to Florida's westernmost corner to assist in the Hurricane Dennis recovery. The team grew out of the archdiocese's experience with Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Georges in 1998. The four hurricanes of 2004 gave the team more seasoning. Now the Catholic Charities disaster response team is working in the context of a new statewide mutual aid agreement among Florida's seven dioceses. It is the first formal disaster response agreement of its kind among local Catholic Charities agencies in the nation. "Last year, we did not have coordinated effort and preplanning," Deacon Turcotte told The Florida Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. "This year, we knew ahead of time what was going to be done and who was going to do it."

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