As much of the southeastern United States braced for Hurricane Irma late last week, local 2-1-1 specialists were making preparations of their own.

The 2-1-1 contact center at Gryphon Place in Kalamazoo, like many others around the country that provide 24/7 information and referral services to local residents, stood ready if called upon to lend support to those impacted by the storm. When they were tapped on Friday to activate, they answered the call – hundreds of them, in fact.

Community Resource Advisors at Gryphon Place handled a total of 810 hurricane-related calls from Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys between Saturday morning and Monday evening. The calls made up the bulk of the 1,136 received by other Michigan 2-1-1 centers.

“Our staff powered through and handled each call,” said Jacob Beach, Director of Community Programs at Gryphon Place. “It was draining, but they did a great job.”

Gryphon Place 2-1-1 is a funded partner with United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region.

Gryphon Place CEO Maricela Alcala said conversations about taking over Miami’s 2-1-1 calls began a week earlier, but even with preparation, the sheer volume of calls was stunning. The center ended up receiving not only 2-1-1 calls as planned, but also took over several additional help and crisis lines.

Eight additional staff members came in over the weekend to help, she said, and many of them went above and beyond – working long hours or checking in from home to offer help. Beach, for example, worked 16 hours on Saturday.

“I think that specifically when you’re not in the midst of disaster, you feel fortunate to be able to provide support,” Alcala said. “I was really proud of how our staff stepped up. This is a time that I think people were happy to come into work to serve, even though it was very exhausting.”

The content of the calls varied, Beach said. CRAs took calls ranging from people looking for the nearest evacuation centers to families in crisis, trapped in their homes as floodwaters rose. During the storm and immediately after, there were few resources available in Miami to point people toward.

“Once the storm started, we really were just a sounding board,” Beach said. “Staff did a great job providing someone to listen to the fears and concerns and deescalate them.”

As the hurricane passed, Gryphon Place staff worked closely with officials in Florida to quickly identify and connect callers to resources as they became available.

Beach said the weekend provided valuable experience in learning how to adapt and communicate in the face of disaster, keeping in mind that it’s not always possible to start the conversation a week in advance.

“We really showed the power of 2-1-1,” he said.

We at United Way BCKR applaud and thank the staff members at Gryphon Place who step up every day to build up our local communities, and who didn’t hesitate to jump in to help those in crisis hundreds of miles away.

United Way Recovery Funds

United Way Worldwide has made it easy to contribute financially to the recovery efforts facing Texas, Louisiana, Florida and other hurricane-affected areas.

UWW has created the United Way Harvey Recovery Fund to complement funds raised by local United Ways in affected areas. Donations to this fund have exceeded $29 million and are being passed along at 100 percent for storm-related needs and mid- and long-term recovery efforts. A similar fund – the United Way Irma Recovery Fund – is also in place.

With your support, we can help rebuild communities devastated by these storms. Learn more here: https://www.unitedway.org/recovery.