One valuable tip for counselors to share with clients opting for a disaster-related mortgage forbearance? Keep a careful log of the people you talk to, say Jen Harris and Patty Brown, trainers for "Foreclosure Intervention Services During Disaster Recovery," a course hosted during the NeighborWorks Virtual Training Institute (Aug. 17-21).

No matter the time of year or the area of the country, when disasters strike, lives are transformed. Every disaster is uniquely painful to the people it displaces. Hurricanes don't have much in common with wildfires; earthquakes don't resemble floods. But all disasters, natural and manmade, destroy homes and livelihoods. Another commonality: cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches don't work to cope with them.

I recently visited Puerto Rico along with NeighborWorks America Regional Vice President Joan Straussman to assess the damage that still exists months after Hurricane Maria hit, learn firsthand the progress being made by our three network members on the ground and chart a path forward to continue to help the island's residents recover. Here is my report.

Samuel Sanders, Executive Director of Mid City Redevelopment Alliance (MCRA) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is among the NeighborWorks network’s “veteran” disaster responders. In fact, NeighborWorks Western Region partnered with the Houston LISC office to host a convening so others could learn from his hard-earned wisdom. Below is a Q-and-A with Sanders.
.
Tell us about your organization’s past experience with natural disasters. How much damage did they cause to the areas you serve?

I recently spent a week working on Hurricane Harvey clean-up efforts with NeighborWorks network member Avenue and Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corp. in Houston.

The news is awash with the damage wrought by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. But these natural disasters should not have surprised anyone; they are only the latest in a string of worsening weather events that is expected to continue.