Is Newport prepared to aid underserved communities in an emergency? Why there's work to do

NEWPORT – Consultant Rob Zarnetske posed a fake scenario to the small group of Newporters gathered inside Innovate Newport’s meeting room on Thursday evening. Imagine a Category Three hurricane just hit Newport, he said, and another one is on the way. What do Newporters do to prepare?

His question was met with pregnant silence until one Newport resident chimed in with a joke.

“We go buy milk, bread and eggs,” Ted Wrobel said. “That’s what we do in Rhode Island.”

Another chimed in.

“It’s every man for himself,” Mary O’Sullivan said.

This was not surprising to hear, Zarnetske later told The Newport Daily News, as he said many communities nowadays feel disconnected from their neighbors. Zarnetske is the vice president for public sector consulting at HCH Enterprises, a company that has been contracted by the state of Rhode Island to develop emergency management training for municipalities like Newport. This town hall gathering is part of a pilot program to help municipal emergency planners tailor their emergency plans with diversity, equity and inclusion in mind.

Alongside Fire Chief Harp Donnelly IV, who serves as the city’s director of emergency management, and newly-appointed Police Chief Ryan Duffy, the team is trying to figure out how to reach underserved, hard-to-reach members of the community when there is a natural disaster or crisis situation, such as a hurricane or pandemic.

Much of what Zarnetske heard Thursday night was not necessarily about emergency planning, however, but about how Newporters feel disconnected from their neighbors, underserved populations especially so. He said that information is still helpful for the work he’s trying to do.

“After a disaster, a community that has strong, pre-existing connections and interrelationships is going to respond in a better way than a community that’s broken up and isn’t communicating,” Zarnetske said. “Getting to that issue tonight, making sure that people put on the table, 'These are the barriers that are preventing us from being part of that network,' from feeling a part of that network is very important.”

Newport was chosen as the guinea pig for this program because of its diverse population, Zarnetske said. Previous conversations involved representatives from the Edward King House Senior Center, The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, Conexión Latina, Newport Pride and Newport County Mental Health.

Throughout the discussion, residents brought up the different reasons why residents feel disconnected. O’Sullivan said many of her neighbors only live in Newport part-time and might be unavailable during an emergency. Newport Housing Authority Director of Social Services Pauline Perkins-Moye said her street, which used to house several Black residents, is now predominantly home to cars with New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania license plates.

Perkins-Moye was one of a handful of people of color in an otherwise mostly white group that evening. When Zarnetske asked who the most invisible populations are in the city, those who aren’t usually considered in decisions, Pauline said she, as a Black Newporter, felt invisible.

“I’ve been out here a long time,” Perkins-Moye said. “We’ve been invisible for a long time.”

Perkins-Moye and others at the meeting told the consultants they need to engage underserved Newporters in places they frequent, such as meal sites and churches, to which Zarnetske agreed that government bodies have been “historically reluctant” to show up in those places.

“What I’m hearing is that inclusion needs to be much more proactive,” Zarnetske said.

Perkins-Moye’s comments struck a chord with Donnelly, who said these conversations have already begun reshaping his thoughts behind emergency planning.

“It’s very interesting to listen to someone else’s perspective because I look at things from my own lens and I don’t see the struggles some of the others have to deal with,” Donnelly said. “I look at some of the situations and I think, ‘That’s not a problem for me. We have heaters in our home,’ or we do this and that, but recognizing it is a problem for other groups…I’m taking notes like crazy.”

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Most of the suggestions given at the meeting were broad issues Newporters in general face during crises, but that could impact underserved communities disproportionately. Worbel said the city’s large Spanish and Portuguese-speaking populations might find it difficult to receive help in a language they understand. He and Perkins-Moye noted that finding shelter or housing for people during a crisis can also be an issue, as Perkins-Moye already had a difficult time finding housing to relocate the 47 residents living at Park Holm as it was being remodeled. Newport resident Michael Cullen pointed out that Newport has a high concentration of pet owners who are less likely to evacuate during an emergency if they don’t have a sure solution to keep their animals safe.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport emergency preparedness misses underserved communities