Emergency Deployments

DCS has a chaplain on call twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and three hundred sixty five days a year: a specialist trained in spiritual response and disaster intervention is always available.

As soon as we become aware of an emergency situation, our first responder is prepared to arrive onsite immediately and/or dispatch another (geographically closer; language appropriate) chaplain or chaplains, as needed. The chaplain remains in the area throughout the emergency situation, working with individuals affected by the event and with other disaster relief professionals. Chaplains may continue to staff a situation over the course of several days or weeks. In the case of a line of duty death or a multiple fatality disaster, DCS often plays an ongoing role at funeral, memorial and other commemorative services.

In recent months, DCS has deployed forty-three chaplains to respond to emergencies in New York, and beyond. Chaplains spent over 225 hours at disaster relief sites and in the field, caring for affected women, men and children.

Local: All Boroughs

NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Warming Centers
Due to the extreme cold and numerous homes without heat, the City of New York in partnership with the American Red Cross in Greater New York, opened nine temporary warming centers in areas with the highest concentrations of heat loss complaints. Those with no heat and no alternative place to stay sought relief, and DCS chaplains were deployed to help.

Emergency Shelters
As a result of several large scale building vacates, hundreds of New York residents found themselves homeless. Some received little advance warning and opportunity to remove necessary items from their homes or adequately prepare. DCS chaplains were on hand to meet residents as they approached their first night of transition, and for days afterward as many continued to process and make sense of this critical change in their lives.

Local: Bronx

Woodycrest fire
Eight children and an adult were killed in a fire in the Bronx Highbridge neighborhood, near Yankee Stadium. A DCS chaplain from the same region of Africa and fluent in the same language as the immigrant families directly affected, was immediately onsite.

Local: Brooklyn

73rd Street, Bay Ridge
A three-alarm fire roared through a three-story building of 15 residents in Bay Ridge, resulting in the death of two children. It took nearly 140 firefighters more than two hours to bring the fire under control.
Brooklyn & Queens tornado and flooding: This area of NYC was hit by a tornado that has been rated an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds between 111 and 135 MPH. Material damage included loss of area homes, destruction of stained glass windows at 4th Avenue Presbyterian Church and 40% deforestation of Leif Ericson Park.

Local: Manhattan

Deutchebank fire
2 FDNY LODD

Fire Department of NY:
Line of duty deaths emergency spiritual care and memorial attendance.

NY Police Department
Line of duty deaths emergency spiritual care and memorial attendance.

Harlem building explosion
An explosion at a five-story, 20-unit apartment building in Harlem left several people seriously injured, including four children and a firefighter. The explosion sent debris and glass in every direction, causing chaos and confusion for the many people living in the area.

Steam pipe explosion
A steam pipe exploded during rush hour in midtown Manhattan, sending steam, water and debris shooting outward and sending clouds of smoke and dust through Midtown Manhattan at the height of evening rush hour. There were three or four firefighters with minor injuries treated at the scene and 20-odd people, civilians, who were injured, some seriously, some not.

Local: Queens

Far Rockaway fire
A fast-moving 6-alarm fire affecting an apartment building of 129 residents, including 46 children, as well as the wider community of Far Rockaway, Queens.

Queens tornado and flooding:
This area of NYC was hit by a tornado that has been rated an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds between 111 and 135 MPH. Material damage included loss of area homes, destruction of stained glass windows at 4th Avenue Presbyterian Church and 40% deforestation of Leif Ericson Park.

Regional

Roscoe flooding
Flood waters swept homes and cars away, ripped up pavement and dumped tons of mud and rocks along an 8-mile stretch of Route 206 from a mile north of Roscoe to Route 30 near the Pepacton Reservoir in the Delaware County Town of Colchester.

National

ARC-GNY Florida Tornado Call Center
Florida Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in Lake, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties following a devastating thunderstorm system and multiple tornadoes. As Red Cross assisted the affected communities, DCS was on hand to provide one-to-one spiritual support for displaced residents, in the moment and as they began the road to recovery.