Episode #5: Ready for the Storm w/ Tito DeJesus

One year ago, our community was hit by one of the most devastating tornadoes in our history. While the initial shock has faded, the vital work of protecting our neighborhoods, supporting our neighbors, and planning for the future never stops. In this episode, we take a deeply personal look back at that day and explore what it truly means to build long-term resilience right here at home so we are fully ready for whatever comes next.

We are joined by Tito DeJesus for an honest and insightful conversation about what disaster recovery really looks like behind the scenes. Tito shares his unique perspective on everything from the practical "airbags of preparedness" every household needs to the powerful role local businesses and volunteers play when a crisis hits. We dive into the logistics of coordinate response efforts and discuss the critical importance of volunteer aftermath support for homeowners who might otherwise feel forgotten in the wake of a storm.

Whether you are looking to strengthen your own household safety plan, understand the ultimate safety net of community action, or simply find inspiration in the incredible strength of our region, this conversation is packed with heart and actionable insights. Tune in to hear Tito’s powerful take on recovery, foresight, and community strength, and let’s make sure we are moving forward and preparing for the future together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to our fifth episode of Inside the Impact, the United Way of the Mohawk Valley podcast. I'm your host, Cassandra. And over the past couple of years, our community has been hit hard by severe summer weathers like tornadoes. We want to make sure our neighbors aren't caught off guard. So today we are joined by our incredible leader in local emergency management and community resilience, Tito de Jesus, the chair of the Herkimer Oneida organizations active in disaster, better known as HOAD. Today's conversation is all about moving from panic to preparedness. And we're going to dismyssify what happens behind the scenes during a crisis breakdown and the disaster cycle and discuss the resources available to keep your family safe this summer. Tito, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Well, hello, Cassandra, and thanks for the opportunity to discuss disaster preparedness with the public. I'd like to start by recognizing that it was exactly one year and one day ago that we lost three beautiful lives in Clark Mills because of the two tornadoes that that's truck there. So I know a lot of people are remembering that now. And certainly Howad had a lot to do with the recovery from those two tornadoes that hit.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Before we get more in depth about what you do at Howad, tell me about yourself. How did you even get here?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

So I'm a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, and I retired here. And I used to fly on aircraft carriers all over the world, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Pacific. But really what drew me into disaster response was actually a mission that I did in Japan. So if you remember in 2011, there was that tsunami earthquake event that happened. A lot of people, thousands of people were affected by that. And actually the Navy was trying to help in any way we could. So I was in charge of actually coordinating all the aircraft that were delivering supplies to the civilian populations. They had no water, they had no food, they had no transportation, the local infrastructure was in ruins, and they were under threat of a nuclear meltdown. So there was a lot going on. But of all the missions that I commanded flew over, you know, 20 plus years in the Navy, that was the moment that I felt like I could do the most good. And when I moved towards retirement, I began working with disaster response groups. And I realized that that's really my true calling now for this phase of my life is to take what I learned in the military and apply it to civilian disaster relief.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Thank you for your service. And you seem like the perfect fit. And I'm sure the team at HOAD is very, very lucky to have you. But let's just get into it. For the listeners who might be completely unfamiliar with the acronym HOAD, what does that even mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Well, so HOAD just comes from Herkimer and Oneida counties. That's where our particular organization works. But the term organization's active in disaster refers to a network of local agencies, nonprofits, and businesses that coordinate to help communities prepare for and respond to and recover from disasters. So when a disaster such as a flood or a tornado happens and it affects a lot of people, a lot of organizations want to help. They want to be there, they want to help people recover. But they may not know what the affected people actually need or where to go to help that one. So organizations active in disaster makes it possible for those groups with different capabilities to kind of cooperate with each other and help the most people in ways that make a difference in the community. So my role is to watch out for those possible disasters in these two counties. And if disaster strikes, I call up those member organizations and I tell them what the needs are. Those organizations are activated and they kind of work as a team of teams to basically reduce suffering and assist people according to whatever it is that each group does best. So by these groups, I'm talking about the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the United Way, of course, and also other groups, church groups, folks who do different things as far as helping people recover.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

It's like the Avengers.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah, you can kind of leave it that way. Yeah, because you know, each of the Avengers has their own special unique talent. And we've got to bring all these talents together and make sure that they're not stepping on each other's toes or that they're not leaving anything out.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Gotcha. That's really cool. Can you break those four stages, Dineface? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So it's a cycle, so it doesn't really matter where you start, but I always like to start with preparedness. So preparedness is just being ready if something happens. So this is the idea of carrying an umbrella in case it rains. Okay, that means you're prepared in case it rains because you don't want your head to get wet. In disaster terms, it's things like smoke detectors, you know, having smoke detectors, testing your smoke detectors, so you'll know if there's a fire in your house. Or it could be signing up for online alerts on your cell phone so that if a storm comes in, you know about it. You know, and if there's a tornado warning, then you you you're already prepared to receive that warning and get to a safe place. Gotcha. Response comes after preparedness because response is when something happens. It's the immediate actions taken to save lives and property. So this is what first responders do. That's what we call them first responders. They're in the response phase. So these are the firefighters, the ambulances, the hospitals, the police. And I need to include like highway departments, search and rescue groups. Anyone who's out and about right as the disaster is hitting, or just after. So, for example, if you heard there was a flood warning and you moved yourself to higher ground because you were prepared, you knew it was going to happen, you've gotten out of the way, and the responders don't need to respond to you. But they'll be responding to people who were unable to get out of the way in time. The third phase is recovery. So this is kind of after that initial response, all of the immediate threats to life and safety are taken care of. And now people are saying coming back home. So maybe you evacuate it, now you're coming back, and now you look at your house and trying to figure out, well, what happened? Is there any damage? Things of that nature. So it could be your house burned down, or it could be your house is still standing, but it has a hole in the roof and water everywhere. It could be that you have no power, it could be that you have heat, gas is turned off. Maybe you need to find someplace else to sleep for a few days in the air. Maybe there's no phone service, so you can't get in touch with people. These are all the kinds of needs that people have in that recovery phase. And so one of the things that organizations active in disaster does is really get into that recovery phase and help people at that point. So recovery can last anywhere from the first, you know, 24 hours after the all clear has sounded up to usually several weeks. In the case of the tornadoes, uh, because both tornadoes in 2024 and 2025, those events happened in June. We were still working into September helping people clean up from those. But sometimes it can even take years. So when you talk about like large hurricanes in the south and things of that nature, folks are still rebuilding two, three years after.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

And then the last phase is mitigation, which is a little, it's a it's a bit of a mouthful. But it's what it's what we do during what we call blue skies. Okay. When there's no disaster today and we're not preparing for a disaster right now, but what we're doing is we're making ourselves more resilient to be able to more easily survive a mixed disaster. Let's put it that way. So that I I liken this to having airbags in your car, right? So, you know, the airbags aren't going to stop you from having the crash. We really hope you don't have the crash. But if the crash happens, a lot of times the airbags are what saves people's lives. And so, in terms of what we do here in Irvine and Herkimer counties as far as mitigation, I think of things like training, like the Citizen Preparedness Corps training that the state puts on, or learning CPR and first aid. These are things that can really reduce the amount of impact if a disaster happens. You know, not having fires during the burn ban season, you know, just because we don't want to cause the the next disaster. You know what I mean? And it's hard to think about because we we have so much to worry about in our daily lives, so we don't want to what if everything. But every once in a while it's good to take a moment and say, well, what if this happens? What would I do?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yes, definitely, definitely. What do you recommend someone like that to do to prepare for a storm?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Well, there so there there is a lot of information out there available to the public if you search the internet. The state has some good general guidelines and then Hercomore County, the county web pages have some more specific uh guidelines for what to do in our area. As far as receiving alerts, I think the newest system is called 3331. So the way this works is you go on your phone and like you're gonna send a text message. The phone number is 333111. And in the text of the message, you just write the name of your county. And anytime an alert happens in that county, the state will push it right out to your phone. So it'll just receive it as a text message or as an email. You can select either one. But there are other services that also provide those those kinds of alerts. And sometimes they just get pushed to you automatically, depending on how severe of a the warning is. But other things, I mean, we just have to accept that that the weather is getting more severe. You know, we're used to snow, we're used to rain, but some of these storms that come through have a lot more wind associated with them, potential for hail, days and days of of rain can lead to flooding issues just because the ground gets saturated.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

And certainly anyone who lives near you know water sources, whether it's the canals or the rivers and streams, they see alive alive effects from that. So, you know, if if you are near one of those places where if you're driving around and you see the water getting higher, you should be thinking, hey, if if I live near this place, what have I, for example, check the sump pump in my basement to make sure it's working? So that nature. There are places online that can advise you on how to prepare an emergency kit, how much water to have, batteries, flashlights, things of that nature. And the last thing is if you are someone or you know someone with special medical needs, that's really something to think about. So say you're a caretaker for someone who uh has mobility issues or needs supplemental oxygen, you know, think about think about what a power outage would mean for something like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Here at United Way, we always advocate for our two-on-one service, which helps individuals with resources and connects them to that. But I really wanted to just hear from your perspective as you are constantly working with our community during these times. So we keep saying severe storms are becoming a regular change and it's not it's not even rare anymore. From an emergency perspective, why do you think it is so critical for our organizations to get involved rather than our neighbors now?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Well, first of all, you know, historically in in this region of the country, we're we've already always been used to neighbors helping neighbors.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

You know what I mean? It's just, it's something that we do. However, we can start to get overwhelmed when there's so many people who need help. And there's also concern that some people are new here and may not have those connections with the community. And so a lot of the organizations that I work with are trying to build a connection with those communities.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

What do you think organizations should know about Howed or why should they get involved when a severe storm happens, regardless of their background, where they come from, like just in the Mohawk Valley.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

As far as organizations go. So the major organizations who are already involved, I kind of mentioned briefly. The American Red Cross uh does great things every day. Dealing with single family fires is one of the major things they deal with. Anytime that there is an event that results in what looks like an extended power outage, they usually open a shelter or will be asked to open a shelter. Salvation Army can then support them by providing food. That's one of the major things the Salvation Army does. When you shop at the Salvation Army thrift store, you are supporting their ability to do that. 211 CoAG works really well with 211 because 211 after a disaster will serve as our call center. So they have a call center in Syracuse. And when we put the word out after the past couple years of tornadoes, we put the word out to the community, hey, call this number if you need help with mucking out of your basement or you have trees down in your property or things like that. They could call 211 and then they would end up basically on a spreadsheet with me, and I would find the organizations who could come out and help. Church or faith-based groups uh are really helpful as well. The most active one here is United Methodist Council on Relief. After the Clark Moss Tornado, the Southern Baptist Convention out of Buffalo actually came out and spent a week here cutting, mostly cutting trees on people's property. Team Rubicon is a veteran-led disaster response organization that I am personally a part of as a veteran. And they do everything from tarping roofs to mucking out houses to running chainsaws. They, you know, they can't do everything, but they do as much as they can. And if people are interested in volunteering to do this kind of work, I mean, there these organizations are always taking people. So just go online and find them and find where you can volunteer. But if you have a local church group uh that you work with and you want to get involved in this kind of thing, then HOAD can actually provide training on how to do some of these things. And all of us.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

And I wanted to mention briefly businesses.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

So if businesses want to get involved in disaster response, and we know that we know that they already do. So for example, in Clark Mills, less than 24 hours after the tornado hit, uh National Grid was giving out dry ice so that folks could keep the food in their refrigerators cold so they didn't lose everything in the refrigerator. And Chibani was giving out uh milk and some other products that they have. If businesses are looking for ways to help and aren't sure, they can certainly contact Who Ed and it will point them in the right direction. The biggest example, of course, would be cash. Giving cash is always the best thing. And we encourage you to give cash to organizations who are helping in that particular community for that particular event. And a business can actually say this money is specifically to help people from Clark Mills who were affected by this tornado. And that's how that money will be used. They can we can also take donations in kind. And one thing that we experienced with both Rome and Clark Mills was that the volunteers who were trying to work on the trees that were like up against people's houses, they can only do so much. But we have tree companies out and about, and they're all working, and of course, we need them to do that work, especially the things that are more unsafe. But if a tree company, for example, wanted to donate a few hours of their time to assist the volunteers, I believe that we could work together. Volunteers could get more done. So, for example, if you know, if they just wanted to use a crane or a lift truck just for a morning and then leave everything on the ground, then the volunteers can come in and take care of everything on the top of the ground. That's a that's an example.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

You really also listed great organizations and businesses. I actually saw firsthand all the incredible work that the community really just came together during the storm. I just wanted to make sure that if an organization or a business wanted to assist, thank you for sharing that information because help is always needed, especially during these times. But you were mentioning about the aftermath. That is something so many people forget is actually the most hardest time for our community. Could you talk a little bit more about what happens during aftermath and how we could better prepare for that in the future?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Well, for example, when I show up to a house in the aftermath as a recovery volunteer, and I'm showing up either, you know, with with a group of people who were either there to, you know, cut up some trees that are down on the property, maybe they're blocking the driveway to get access to the home restored. Or maybe it's across, you know, a primary or a secondary exit, and we need to make sure that the house still has a primary and secondary exit. Or we may be going in there to muck out a basement where you know all of the stuff that they have in the basement may be destroyed.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

We realize that we're coming to help people on the worst day. So there certainly is a lot of sensitivity that we have about not showing any judgment, not, you know, being critical and not just being there to take pictures of ourselves, because that's not what we're there for. We're there to help people. Sometimes you'll go into someone's basement and and you'll find something of value to that homeowner, you know. And instead of just taking everything and throwing it on the curb to be taken out by the trash, we'll say, Hey, do you do you want to save this? I mean, you know, it it maybe it it's partially destroyed, but if it's okay to save it, would you like to try to see? I mean, we've found, you know, grandpa's American flag, they've found wedding rings, they've found all kinds of, you know, collections of things. And sometimes that means a lot because it's like of all the things that you've lost, I I still have this.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

You know?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah. That's very, very heartwarming to know that you meet everyone where they're at, especially on such very, very sensitive time.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

And I should emphasize that all of these volunteer groups that are showing up to people's houses, they do not charge anything. They have all basically sworn to operate at no cost to the homeowner, no cost to the community. So all of the, you know, the tools that they need and food that they need and things like that, that's all through donations or through, you know, grants from, you know, from higher-ups or from national national organizations or whoever. But they will never charge you. And this can be tricky because sometimes there's scammers out there. So one of the another function of HOAD is that we will vet any organization that's working in the community and we will tell the community, if they say they're from this organization, this is what their t-shirt says, then you can trust them. And if you have any questions, of course, you can always reach out to us.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Is that an actual a big problem you find over?

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Not here. There I have seen a little bit of distrust. No, yeah. You know, just because someone shows up to your house and says they're gonna do something for free that would normally cost you thousands of dollars. Yeah. You you you can have a bit of a trust issue, and that's okay, we're used to that. But I have seen in because I've traveled around a country doing this kind of work in the year with major hurricanes and things of that nature, there have actually been folks who show up and impersonate the volunteers and attract and charge the homeowners.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

That's unfortunate.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

And that's really unfortunate. So again, that's one of the reasons why we want that link between the volunteer groups and the emergency managers from the counties so that we can assure the public of which groups are actually there just to help and not to make a dime off of someone's horse.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Right. And that's why Howad is so important. This is exhausting work for to take care of your community. I mean, it's really impactful. You know, you feel impactful, you feel really accomplished, but it must be exhausting having to manage a crisis every day or or just plan the worst case scenario at all times. How what really gives you that like, wow, this is why I do this feeling?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

I mean, it really is just as I said, when you when you show up to talk to this homeowner and they're all alone and their house is in shambles and they have nowhere else to go, and they thought no one cared. You know, you have people say, I didn't know that people still cared about people in this way, you know, and they see four or five people walk up and maybe we've already been working on the morning, we're already dirty, we're already sweating. Right. And we show up and we're not there to take anything, we're only there to keep giving. And sometimes that giving is just doing this really dirty work. But you know, one or two people who just lost everything, they're trying to get all of this wet junk out of their basement, or they're trying to cut up this tree that just, you know, tackled their whole front wall, and um, it can take them a very long time. When you show up before or five people, it goes so fast. It just, it's like lightning. And of course, you know, we're just there because we want to get the stuff done. And we take care of everything and you get that sense of teamwork. And that certainly helps with the fatigue because there's like an adrenaline rush to doing this stuff. But I've done this all over the country. I've been to California, Texas, Louisiana. It does hit different when it's at home. Yeah. So last year I lived in Westmoreland, so the tornado missed my house by a half mile. And and I began working, and I'm working on the streets that I drive every single day. And uh yeah, I just remember talking to the homers and they I was like, What where were you? What happened? And I said, Oh, the thunder woke me up at 4 a.m. And it's like, well, the thunder woke me up at 4 a.m. too, and now I'm now I'm here to help.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

And really it's that the gratitude that you see, you can't get that from anything else. Fine.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

That's fine. Well, before I wrap things up, is there any final thoughts or pieces of advice you would like to leave for our neighbors before we head more into our summer months?

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I do want to encourage people, like like they say on the airplane, put your own oxygen mask on first, right? So take care of yourself first. Make sure you're ready. There are a couple of Citizen Preparedness Corps trainings coming up, and I can actually get those to you. I would love that. So that people know there's one in up county and one Calicamo County in the next three weeks or so. Okay. I encourage people to go to those. It it goes in depth about what you can do personally for your own household to make sure that you're prepared. But like I said, you can also go online and and go to like the county or the state websites and look up disaster preparedness from them. If people want to, uh if people have extra capacity after that, if you're an oxygen mask on it and you want to help somebody else, the biggest thing is donate cash to an organization that does something that you feel strongly. Or become a volunteer. If you can become a volunteer, then you can get to go out there and actually have that face-to-face conversation with that survivor of that disaster. And it's amazing. So Red Cross, United Ways, Salvation Army, United Methodists, Southern Baptists, Teen Rubicon. I personally want to ask anyone who's a veteran to consider joining Teen Rubicon. They have a very veteran-focused mission. But most of all, everyone should just uh make sure you're looking out for your neighbors all the time. You know, anytime that the the weather starts to get bad and maybe there's somebody down the street who, you know, who you're worried about, go ahead and check in on that.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Yes, it really just takes one person. Thank you so much, Tito, for just pulling back the curtain and helping us understand what we should learn about surviving summer challenges like tornadoes and it knowing that it's not just about luck, it's really about understanding everything from beginning to the aftermath of the entire cycle of HOAD and making sure to utilize the local resources that are right in our backyard. Thank you again to everyone that listened into this episode. To learn more about disaster preparedness resources or how to get involved with local emergency, visit Unitedwaysmv.org or any of the resources and organizations that Tito had listed. And I will also want to say that 2 in 1 MidYork has a website. It's 2in1MidYork.org. You can text or call it. Please stay safe, stay prepared, and stay tuned for more future episodes as we continue to spotlight the people making a real difference in the Mohawk.