Help St. John Prepare

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, the Island of St. John banded together to locate and utilize essential response assets like generators, chainsaws, and food and water. This demonstration of innate community strength highlighted the need for a more formalized and robust preparation strategy.

In the years since, Love City Strong has built upon the community spirit of the disaster response, and assembled a multi use facility to accommodate emergency response supplies to ensure an organized and coordinated deployment. This facility uses a solar power system to power air-conditioned units housing food and water for the island, as well as other critical disaster response supplies.

The facility is now operational and serves as the central hub for pre-positioned emergency supplies. This significantly reduces the lag time in mobilizing critical resources following a disaster. The integration of the solar power system ensures that critical supplies, particularly temperature-sensitive items like certain medical supplies and long-term food stores, remain viable even during island-wide power outages.

Additionally, we continue to prioritize community preparedness drills, testing the deployment protocols for the supplies housed in the new facility. These exercises provide invaluable feedback on logistics and communication.

All of our programs are built on the strength of our island community, and we evaluate and adapt based on positive and negative outcomes of past experiences. The new facility represents a step forward, moving St. John from a reactive posture to a proactive state of readiness.

We are grateful for the support of our donors, and the continued investment in the resilience of St. John. Your generosity ensures that when the next storm threatens, our community is not just ready to respond, but fully prepared to protect its most high risk residents.

Thank you for helping us strengthen Love City.

A significant milestone in Love City Strong’s ongoing commitment to capacity building occurred in August, when two members of our team, Kenisha and Kharid, had the opportunity to attend the National CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) conference in Indiana. This was an immersive learning experience that yielded a wealth of information, which they have diligently brought back to enrich St. John. Beyond the acquisition of critical knowledge, the conference provided a valuable platform for networking, allowing Kenisha and Kharid to forge lasting connections with individuals and organizations across the country who share a common dedication to disaster preparedness and response.

The National CERT Association (NCA), a pivotal entity in this field, was established on September 12, 2019. It emerged from the collaborative vision of CERT Leaders across the United States, working in close partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The NCA's fundamental purpose is to foster robust communication and facilitate efficient resource sharing throughout the expansive CERT community. We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to be part of this broader movement and to have participated in a conference that brought together professionals from a wide array of sectors. This diverse gathering allowed for invaluable exchanges of challenges and solutions, enriching our understanding and refining our approaches to emergency preparedness.

Kenisha and Kharid returned to St. John not only with enhanced technical skills but also with a renewed sense of purpose and a broadened perspective on community resilience. They are now even better equipped to serve their community, leveraging the knowledge and connections gained to strengthen local preparedness efforts. Their ability to contribute to a safer and more resilient St. John has been significantly amplified.

We extend our deepest gratitude to our supporters, whose contributions make these crucial training opportunities possible for our staff. Your belief in our mission empowers us to invest in our team, which directly translates into a more prepared and capable St. John. As we look to the future, Love City Strong remains committed to actively seeking out further opportunities for continuous improvement, constantly striving to enhance our ability to contribute to a more resilient and prepared St. John for all its residents.