Disasters often happen quickly. A tornado or earthquake, for instance, can strike within a matter of minutes.
Floods, on the other hand, can last for weeks and sometimes longer.
But an economic disaster, such as the one stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, can last for months and perhaps years.
“It’s happening in slow motion,” said Mark Winkler, emergency management director of Cape Girardeau County. “Recovery is going to be the longest part of this disaster.”
Winkler co-chairs a group called COAD, short for County Organizations Active in Disaster, consisting of representatives from various social service agencies in Cape Girardeau County as well as the surrounding counties of Scott, Bollinger and Perry.
Several dozen group members held a “virtual” meeting Tuesday to discuss some of ways the pandemic has affected — and will affect — people in the four-county area.
“Issues are going to start surfacing soon,” Winkler said. “We need to project how far into the future these issues might linger and might need some sort of assistance.”
One of the call’s participants, Denise Wimp of First Call for Help, said she expects to see a need for housing assistance soon.
“We think the biggest impact will be this month and next month when people who may have had some savings start to run out of money or they’ve spent their stimulus check or they didn’t get their assistance in April and now they’re two months behind on things. This is the time we expect things to pick up and in particular in the area of rent and housing.”
Food, Wimp said, “is not so much of an issue because we’ve had such an increase in support in the food system through food pantries, the food bank, mobile food programs. That seems to be pretty well covered. Everything else, I think, is going to be more financially related in the areas of rent and electricity, things like that.”
Some populations have fared better than others at this point of the crisis. Kristal Berkbigler-Friese of the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence (SADI) told the other COAD representatives the SADI clients she has spoken to have been doing “remarkably well” so far.
“They’re used to living on a set amount of money each month and that money continues to come in,” she said. “Quite a few of them are taking advantage of mobile food pantries and we’ve not had any reported (coronavirus) cases in our folks.”
Representatives of the Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau and Bootheel Counseling Services in Sikeston said they are anticipating a need for additional mental health services in the region as a result of the coronavirus’ economic and social impact. The virus has changed the way certain mental health services are being provided, according to Kyle Schott of Community Counseling Center.
“From a mental health standpoint, most of our services are being provided through telehealth services,” he said. “We’re doing a lot more phone and a lot more video counseling sessions and much of our psychiatry is through telehealth now, so we’ve had to adjust some of our services.”
He said mental health providers throughout the state are receiving additional crisis counseling training.
“The (Missouri) Department of Mental Health is going to do some virtual training statewide,” he said.
It was noted local social service agencies are coordinating outreaches to the minority populations through PORCH (People Organized to Revitalize Community Healing) and that organization’s executive director, Julian Watkins.
Marla Barber of the American Red Cross office in Perry County, said the pandemic continues to cause blood drives to be canceled, threatening the region’s blood supply.
“We still have a big need and we’re encouraging people to get out and donate whenever they can,” she told other members of the COAD group.
The group will continue meeting, probably on a monthly basis, for the foreseeable future. In addition to identifying issues and challenges posed by the coronavirus, they will also look for funding sources to help respond to those needs.
Winkler said it is possible some financial assistance for various social service needs could come from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds. Each county represented by the COAD committee has been allocated CARES dollars to be used to help defray expenses related to the coronavirus.
“That’s something that we’ll look at, most definitely,” he said.
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