Sea Bright, New Jersey

Superstorm sandy

The rain and storm surge from October 2012’s Superstorm Sandy left three quarters of the homes and the entire business district of the oceanfront town of Sea Bright, New Jersey under water. Kathleen Koch, who had yet to create LeadersLink, heard from Mayor Dina Long and partnered her with former Waveland, Mississippi Mayor Tommy Longo. Waveland had been ground zero for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, crushed by the storm’s 125 mph winds and 30-foot storm surge. Longo made multiple trips to Sea Bright to survey the damage, meet with Long and prepare city staff for the long road ahead.

“I think the one-to-one mentoring was one of the most helpful things for me, a new mayor new to natural disasters and FEMA,” said Mayor Long. “Tommy was someone who truly understood the challenges I was going through because he’d been through it himself, but much, much worse. For the whole of the community, Tommy’s mentoring gave us strategic insight into our recovery planning, which is so crucial in the early days post-disaster when states are allocating recovery dollars.”

"It's a great idea. The lessons learned and experiences gained through a disaster are so helpful to instruct or guide people. It's just so valuable that experience, and so helpful. There's an art to this."

Mayor Joe Riley / Charleston, SC
"I would love to have had someone saying 'for the next 3 weeks here's what you need to focus on'. That would have really helped me. There really wasn't a lot of information passed on to us about what was coming in the weeks and months ahead. We did our best to anticipate a lot of issues."

Mayor Walter Maddox / Tuscaloosa, AL
"A website would be really helpful. The ability to link to somebody, talk to somebody in a city of 10,000 or 300,000. There is just some consolation to hearing affirmation. Truthfully, the emotional support means a lot."

Mayor Ted Ellis / Bluffton, IN / Former Pres., National League of Cities
"There's a lot of people sit back and say, 'Oh my God! What am I going to do?' At times, you just need someone to talk to about what you need to be doing next."

Mayor Gregg Kennedy / Smithville, MS
"You're going to get the first call. So you'd better have some answers. You have five minutes! You need to know what you're going to do."

Mayor Harry Lewis / Rayville, LA
"If we keep educating folks - however it needs to be done - but if we can keep educating and letting them know what we know now and wished we had known back then, I think we'll all be better off."

Mayor Eddie Favre / Bay St. Louis, MS
"I think it's very important. It gives us an opportunity to take lessons learned and mistakes made and pass them forward and help people make the right decisions and keep from making the wrong ones."

Mayor Brent Warr / Gulfport, MS
"Anytime you tap on experience, that's a whole lot better a lot of times than a bunch of books. If you have somebody that lived it say, this is what you need to do. Especially if it worked out."

Mayor Billy Skellie / Long Beach, MS

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