Providing Hope and Strengthening Recovery Efforts After Hurricane Dorian

This blog originally appeared on The Patterson Foundation’s website. 

After a disaster, our collective efforts and innate desire to reach out and help inspire stories of hope and good amidst crisis. Following Hurricane Dorian’s path through the Caribbean and along the East Coast, communities across the country are coming together and offering support to our neighbors in the Bahamas and North Carolina impacted by the storm’s multiple landfalls.

Hurricane Dorian made its initial landfall on the island of Great Abaco as a Category 5 hurricane, making it the strongest storm on record to hit the Bahamas and causing devastation across the island and on Grand Bahama Island. Additionally, Hurricane Dorian is the strongest storm to hit the Atlantic Ocean this hurricane season, prompting mandatory evacuations and causing flooding, power outages and other damage along the East Coast of the United States.

While relief efforts address the immediate needs following a disaster like Hurricane Dorian, recovery efforts focus on improving individual, family and community resiliency after the event. Recovery can include restoration of structures, systems and services while helping individuals and families rebound from their losses and sustain their physical, social, economic, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Disaster-recovery costs are expected to rise as officials continue assessing the damage, and donations typically decline following the immediate aftermath of a disaster — leaving important recovery projects underfunded.

To strengthen these medium- and long-term recovery efforts, The Patterson Foundation has provided a $250,000 contribution to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s (CDP) 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund. CDP focuses on increasing donor impact throughout the full life cycle of disasters by providing educational and informational services, consulting expertise to foundations and corporations, and collaboration opportunities for donors. The CDP 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund will allow donors who are interested in contributing to disaster-relief and recovery efforts to give proactively, ensuring a more solidified medium- and long-term response.

“Emergency needs are critical, but those whose lives have been impacted by Hurricane Dorian are going to need help beyond immediate disaster-relief efforts to fully recover,” said Debra Jacobs, president and CEO of The Patterson Foundation. “The Center for Disaster Philanthropy has continuously exhibited the expertise needed to address the various challenges these affected regions may face long term.”

Since 2012, The Patterson Foundation has contributed more than $3.75 million to CDP to support efforts for major disasters such as Hurricane Harvey and the Global Refugee Crisis. This latest gift is an effort to catalyze additional donations from other funders monitoring damages caused by Hurricane Dorian.

“We are grateful that in the face of major disasters, The Patterson Foundation is consistently a leader in committing to significant gifts that will help in recovery efforts for those whose lives have been devastated,” said Robert G. Ottenhoff, president and CEO of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. “It is our hope that their generosity will inspire others in the philanthropic community to give generously as well because recovery from Hurricane Dorian will be a long process that will require sustained investment.”

To learn more about the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and contribute to its 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund, visit www.disasterphilanthropy.org. Please visit www.thepattersonfoundation.org for more information on The Patterson Foundation.