Hurricane Help: Lawyers mobilize to support communities hit by storms
Atlanta attorney Ira Foster helped transport donations to hard-hit areas of Georgia in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Photo from Ira Foster)
On Wednesday, Ira Foster packed his SUV full of food and bottled water and drove more than two hours from Atlanta to Augusta, Georgia.
Foster, the general counsel of the Georgia Legal Services Program, wasn’t prepared for what he saw in Augusta, which had been hit hard by Hurricane Helene. Trees and power lines were down. Roads were closed. Many homes were destroyed.
“I knew that things were bad, but when I went there and saw some of the areas, it was truly like a war zone, like a bomb had been dropped,” Foster says. “It was mind-blowing.”
Just a few days earlier, Foster and his colleagues on the State Bar of Georgia’s SOLACE Committee, which supports members of the legal community who suffer serious loss, began talking about how they could help in Augusta. The committee sent out an email to all bar members, asking them to donate supplies.
Within 24 hours, Foster says they received enough donations to fill his SUV, plus two others.
“I was amazed by the joy I saw on the staff’s faces when I arrived,” says Foster, who delivered the first round of supplies to the Augusta office of the Georgia Legal Services Program, where they will be distributed to lawyers, judges, law office and court staff, law students and their families.
Donations to the State Bar of Georgia could fill three SUVs. (Photo from Ira Foster)
“I know many of them didn’t have electricity, their water was off for a few days, and they are stretched [thin]. It made me feel good to know they felt that we cared.”
‘Long road to recovery’
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 26, and it cut a path of destruction across the southeastern United States. Just two weeks later, Hurricane Milton is prompting mass evacuations in Florida and could strike the state as a Category 4 or 5-strength storm on Wednesday night. The Florida State Supreme Court has announced many court closures related to Milton.
Hurricane Assistance
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Members of the ABA have begun mobilizing to assist with legal issues related to the natural disasters.
“Looking at the destruction Hurricane Helene has caused, it is clear many people have lost everything,” ABA President William R. Bay said in a note to members last week. “It will be a long road to recovery. Now is the time for us all to pull together to help our neighbors regain their lives.”
The ABA Young Lawyers Division’s Disaster Legal Services program operates in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help survivors navigate the aftermath of presidentially declared disasters. It is now coordinating the delivery of free legal services in at least six states, including Florida.
“In the past, when we have had a major hurricane, usually the impacts are limited to one state,” says Amanda Brown, the director of Disaster Legal Services. “With [Helene], we have several states that are being activated at one time due to this disaster. That’s been an extra challenge.”
The group is also prepping for Hurricane Milton. “This will be the third active effort in Florida in two months,” Brown says. “The partners have been incredibly resilient in the face of all this, and will continue on with what is, unfortunately, ‘business as usual.’”
Disaster Legal Services works with state and local bar associations and legal services organizations to set up and promote free legal aid hotlines. The program also helps recruit and train volunteer attorneys. They help with a range of legal issues, including insurance claims, disputes with landlords and home repair contracts.
“The bar associations in all of the jurisdictions that we’re working with have really stepped up,” Brown says. “They are already getting organized and getting rosters of volunteers ready to accept cases.”
North Carolina efforts
The North Carolina Bar Association is one of the groups encouraging its members to help residents affected by Hurricane Helene.
The storm wreaked havoc on Asheville and other parts of western North Carolina, which experienced flash floods and landslides. It washed out roads and cut off access to entire communities.
An aerial view on Oct. 3 of flood damage wrought by Hurricane Helene along the Swannanoa River in Asheville, North Carolina. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)Since last week, more than 500 people have registered to volunteer for North Carolina Disaster Legal Services, says Jason Hensley, the executive director of the North Carolina Bar Association. Its Young Lawyers Division partners with Legal Aid of North Carolina, the ABA Young Lawyers Division and FEMA to run the program.
This includes out-of-state attorneys, who can provide pro bono legal services to survivors of Hurricane Helene because of a temporary rule amendment approved by the North Carolina Supreme Court.
“We are fortunate that we have the legal community here in North Carolina and then more broadly in the country that is full of people who want to give to and support other people in need,” Hensley says.
Volunteer attorneys will be paired with residents who call the disaster hotline, which is operated by Legal Aid of North Carolina. Alicia Edwards, the director of its Disaster Relief Project, points out that attorneys will initially help with housing and other immediate needs. But, she says, they also will see more legal issues develop over time.
Long-term needs could include FEMA appeals and disaster tax relief.
“We will help people throughout their entire recovery and know this is going to be a multiyear effort,” says Edwards, adding that her project is still assisting clients with issues related to Hurricane Florence, which hit North Carolina in 2018.
The North Carolina Bar Association also is supporting its own members who have been affected by Hurricane Helene through BarCARES, which offers confidential counseling to lawyers, law students and their families.
Source of support
As part of its work, the ABA Young Lawyers Division’s Disaster Legal Services provides in one place resources for lawyers to get help or offer help to others in need.
For those in states impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Disaster Legal Services will share information on how to apply for FEMA assistance, locate safety and shelter programs and access legal aid organizations. The group lists its national hotline as another resource for individuals seeking civil legal services.
Disaster Legal Services also provides a central location for lawyers to learn about disaster response and sign up to volunteer their time. In addition to one-on-one legal counseling and representation, lawyers can assist with the group’s operations or train and mentor other volunteers who are handling cases.
State Bar of Georgia SOLACE committee members Judge Amanda Heath and Ira Foster at the supply distribution center in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo from Ira Foster)State bar associations—including the State Bar of Georgia, Florida Bar and North Carolina Bar Association—and legal services organizations also offer disaster recovery resources and volunteer opportunities on their websites.
Multistate disasters like Hurricane Helene are becoming more common, says Brown, adding that Disaster Legal Services is actively assisting in 32 locations. That’s another record for the program, which helped survivors in 23 federally declared natural disasters last year.
“This is a massive disaster that has affected a lot of people, but people in other communities have been impacted by smaller disasters and are also struggling,” Brown says. “There’s a very high likelihood they are in your state. So reach out to DLS and sign up to volunteer.”
The DLS sign-up form is available at https://www.bit.ly/dls-volunteer.
See also:
After Hurricane Helene, court deadlines extended, misconduct hotline activated
