Although Hurricane Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane by the time it reached the coast of the Carolinas on September 14th, it still caused record rainfall and flooding to much of the region. Almost two weeks later, many of the rivers are still flooding and thousands of residents have not been able to return home.
Before Florence touched down, CERF+ reached out to our contacts in harm’s way. Our email alert included links to tips and resources for artists to help protect and mitigate loss. After the storm passed through, we sent out another message with “do-it-yourself” recovery resources from CERF+’s Studio Protector. You can sign up to receive these alerts here.
As co-founders and steering committee members of the National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness and Emergency Response, CERF+ participates in post-disaster meetings with other national and local partners in the weeks following a disaster. Together, we assess the impacts of storms on the arts and culture sectors and, specifically, on artists.
Arts organizations and individuals across the country are important sources of information for us on how disasters may be impacting artists. We received the following message from Wayne Martin, the Executive Director of the North Carolina Arts Council on September 19, 2018: