I’m here with the team, here’s what we know ▸

[ [link removed] ]Mercy Corps

I’m here with our emergency response team in the Bahamas,
and want to share with you what we’re seeing as we stage our response to
Hurricane Dorian. When natural disasters strike, it always takes time to
mount a full-scale emergency response. Urgent search and rescue takes
priority, and humanitarian responders determine the highest needs, move
into position and secure resources. Hours can feel like days in this part,
but it’s necessary as we wait for more access to affected areas on the
islands.

Hurricane Dorian was one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.
It pummeled the northwest Bahamas for nearly two full days before Mercy
Corps responders could even get to Nassau, the capital. These have been
challenging days for the
people in dire need, for our team desperately trying to get there and
help, and likely for you too as you wait to hear more about our response.

[ [link removed] ][IMG]
Reports are now coming back from the most severely affected islands, Abaco
and Grand Bahama, and it’s very clear that helping Bahamians recover from
this catastrophic disaster will take time — time and commitment from the people
showing up and from the global community powering this work.

As a Mercy Corps supporter, you are part of that community. That’s why I
want you to meet a few of the Mercy Corps emergency response team members
here with me. I know how helpful it is for you to see the names and faces
of the people coordinating our initial on-site response. They are
supported by other team members at our headquarters, and through Mercy
Corps’ network of humanitarians around the world, including you.

[ Jill ]Jill Morehead Jill Morehead
Regional Team Leader

Jill is Mercy Corps’ emergency response team leader for
the Americas region and she’s our team leader on this
urgent response. Jill has worked in more than a dozen
crises and has nearly 20 years of experience working
internationally in development and humanitarian
response.
Recently, Jill led Mercy Corps’ initial emergency response in Puerto Rico,
and has supported our work in Colombia meeting the urgent needs of
refugees from Venezuela. She’s tireless and fiercely insistent on doing
what’s going to be the best and most fair for the most people possible.

[ [link removed] ]You may have seen her on CNN yesterday ▸

[ Karla ]Karla Peña Karla Peña
Puerto Rico Director

Karla, a native of Puerto Rico, is Mercy
Corps’ Puerto Rico Director, where she
oversees the organization’s efforts to help
Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria and
prepare for future storms. She joined Mercy
Corps after Hurricane Maria devastated her
home region.
Her first role was as an emergency response program manager and since then
she’s been working with our resilience hubs to help 90,000 people increase
disaster preparedness within their communities. She’s a front-line
responder, focused on identifying partnerships and gaps in our response in
the Bahamas and jumping in to fill them. She’s incredibly cool under the
pressure of these situations.

[ Anthony ]Anthony Lecossois Anthony Lecossois
Strategic Operations Manager

Anthony has been with Mercy Corps since 2013,
specializing in operations, logistics and global
supply chain. He has extensive experience getting
aid to those who need it most in some of the most
logistically challenging emergency responses,
including the Syria crisis and South Sudan.
Anthony recently worked with the Mercy Corps team in the Democratic
Republic of Congo to fight the spread of Ebola, and is leading our initial
logistics and operations response right now from Nassau.

I’m so grateful to be here with these exceptional colleagues, and I’m
confident that as we secure access to the most severely affected islands
we will be able to move efficiently to help families and people in need.
I’m here working to report on our response and raise awareness of the
situation on the ground in the Bahamas. I will be meeting with survivors,
listening to their stories and documenting their needs.

As we wait with other humanitarian response teams, some of the
conversation has turned to the historic severity of this storm and the
effects a changing climate may be having on how hurricanes form and move
through the oceans. I think of a comment I read from CNN meteorologist
Brandon Miller earlier this week,

"Dorian’s storm surge washed across the many islands in the Northern
Bahamas, leaving devastation that is only starting to come into view now
that the storm is slowly moving away. While Dorian’s extreme winds built
the surge to exceptional levels, higher base sea levels from climate
change adding another foot or so no doubt made a big difference on the
largely pancake-flat terrain of the Bahamas."

Looking at the images starting to come out of Abaco and Grand Bahama, it’s
clear those kinds of changes have a profound effect on the lives and
livelihoods of so many people, here and around the world. As
humanitarians, we all have a role to play in helping families caught up in
the effects of climate change — not just saving lives after disasters, but
helping people to create lasting change and build resilient communities
where their families can thrive.

From these devastating hurricanes in Puerto Rico or the Bahamas to
weather-related disasters — drought or flooding for example — in places
like Ethiopia, Niger or Kenya, Mercy Corps’ teams are there in more than
40 countries around the world. They are providing communities at greatest
risk with lifesaving assistance and the resources they need to
re-establish healthy bodies and build prosperous livelihoods.

Right now, this team is focused on the urgent crisis here in the Bahamas
and is ready to move into action. If you want to learn more about our
response here, you can [ [link removed] ]visit our Quick Facts page on Hurricane Dorian,
where we’ll be updating with more on our response as it continues to
develop.

Thank you for your support of the work we do.

Christy Delafield
Mercy Corps Director of Communications

P.S. In every emergency, here and around the world, the best and fastest
way to help people in the crisis is by donating. If you want to help, you
can [ [link removed] ]contribute to our Humanitarian Response Fund.

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