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A Community Organization Active in Disaster (COAD) is an umbrella organization that exists to bring together stakeholdersinterested in building better prepared and more resilient communities.

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In an effort to organize prior to a disaster, several Iowa communities have used the recent flood disaster to 
springboard the development of their COADS.

Larry Smith, Emergency Manager, Washington County IA:

As I see it, the biggest benefit of having a COAD  will be to increase our response so that we can have it, 
have our partners pre-identified and what kinds of things 
they can bring to the table, what resources they can 
bring to the table before the events gonna  happen.

Glenn Leach, Diocese of Davenport:

It is the faith based organizations and the volunteer organizations that are the backbone of the recovery effort.

Carla Mongan, Voluntary Agency Liaison Specialist:

Whether it's a small disaster or a huge disaster you can't predict it.  Couple of years ago, there was a disaster where I lived.  We didn't have any COAD we just had the fire department red cross  emergency manager we didn't have any long term recovery program or anything like that there.  I lived in that same house for 15 years, never even got water in the basement and I ended up getting 9 1/2 feet to 10 feet of water and oil in our house and they had to totally destroy it.  If we would have had a recovery program there, our community would have been much better off.  And, that is one thing I stress to the communities here is if you already have something set up then you are already prepared 
when the disaster happens.  Preparedness is the best way to go on any type of disaster.  The individual needs to be prepared and have a preparedness kit so that way
if something does happen they already know where they are going whether it's a house fire, tornado or whatever it may be.  So if you are prepared for your disaster, your to be a lot better off and have your resources all in hand so once a disaster happens all you do is pick up the phone and say we need this, this and this.  And you would already have your resources.

Larry Smith, Emergency Manager, Washington County IA:

We would have to... we would scramble but we could get it done but we could do it better if we had a group like this.  Like I said, we would have our partners pre-identified so we are not duplicating any of our efforts so we would have a response that is as smooth as can be for everybody.

Carla Mongan, Voluntary Agency Liaison Specialist:

You bring your resources together before it ever happens and when you bring these resources together then your county, your community or your state is going to recover a lot more than it would if you hadn't had something in your area.

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For more information about Communitiy Organizations Active in Disaster visit http://www.nvoad.org

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fema.gov