Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and University of Nebraska Medical Center Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., appeared on Monday night's live broadcast of RFD-TV's "Rural America Live" to discuss the flooding in Nebraska and the public health and behavioral health concerns the disaster raises.
Guests included:
- Aaron Yoder, Ph.D., associate professor, UNMC Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Environmental Health, College of Public Health; and
- Christine Chasek, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Counseling and School Psychology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) and director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) at UNK, and president-elect of the International Association of Addiction and Offender Counseling.
Dr. Gold and the panel spoke remotely from Omaha for the Nashville-based program. The hourlong show focused on the effects of the flooding, touching on topics such as:
- Health information when coping with a disaster;
- Public health concerns;
- Potable water safety;
- Dealing with stress;
- The heartland's reaction to the flooding; and
- Resources available for those affected by the flooding.
"Rural America Live" — formerly titled "RFD-TV Live" — is the longest-running show produced by RFD-TV. Find RFD-TV on local television providers.
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Soundbites from RFD-TV program
The following are transcribed audio soundbites taken from Monday evening’s RFD-TV live broadcast.
Here is a link to the mp3 files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b9sk2t0brlrx930/AAD1v6d5OJ0ucbSQQ1I1LChda?dl=0
Gov. Pete Ricketts talks about resilience of the people of Nebraska.
RickettsResilience
That’s one of the things that has been great to see in the people of Nebraska – is resilience. We’ve got so many unselfish people out there who are helping their neighbors. Our first responders, our law enforcement, the volunteers – just have been doing a fantastic job. I talked to a woman in Wood River — a firefighter there – she’d been going on four hours of sleep. The fire chief in Lynch – his home had flooded. He didn’t go home. He stayed out helping people. Same thing for the deputy sheriff in Lynch – his father-in-law was cleaning his house – we drove by it while he was out helping the search for our missing person. And if you look at the resilience of some of the victims, I was at the First Lutheran shelter in Fremont with Senator (Ben) Sasse. A woman came in there and she had her trailer home – mobile home – flooded out, but instead of getting in the victim line, she got in the volunteer line because she wanted to show her kids that they could still help other people – that they were safe and wanted to help. Another woman in Elkhorn – same story – her mobile home had been flooded out and she and her little 10-month-old little girl were there and she said, ‘Well, we’re just going to hit the restart button and start over again.’ I mean, people have been so fantastic all across the state and helping out their neighbors and the people impacted have been so incredibly resilient.
Gov. Pete Ricketts talks about the outpouring of support for flood victims.
RickettsSupport
We’ve just seen a tremendous outpouring of support whether it was here within the state with the Nebraska Broadcasters and their radiothon from last week that raised over $440,000 for Nebraskans to folks here in Nebraska like Larry the Cable Guy and Hannah Huston to national people like Justin Timberlake. All that support and of course the support nationally from the federal government really lets us know that the people of America have our back here in Nebraska. And I just can’t say enough about all the people who’ve volunteered to help us to sending in donations, the federal government response, it really has been tremendous.
Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and University of Nebraska at Omaha talks about how employees and students of the university are helping.
GoldNUHelping
We are collecting food and supplies, particularly critically important supplies. Think respirator masks, think gloves, diapers, other things that are in very short supply right now across the state. And just an army of volunteers, if you think about it…thousands of faculty and staff who are all asking what can they do and they’re volunteering. They’re getting down and they’re rolling up their sleeves and working with their colleagues and friends in rural communities to help pump water, to clean out basements, to remove soaked wallboard and carpet – things that are going to become a real problem over time. And when the rural areas are so affected by the flooding and by all of the snow damage to see that the entire state has come together to help them it’s inspiring.
Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and University of Nebraska at Omaha talks about the university’s responsibility to the state.
GoldSumUp.mp3
The University of Nebraska as a public university has a tremendous responsibility to serve the rural and urban communities and after a tragedy – that’s when the university really shines. That’s when our values come forward.
Christine Chasek, director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska at the University of Nebraska at Kearney talks about the need for stability and predictability for children and adults.
ChasekChildren.mp3
Kids need stability and predictability. And as adults we do too. So it’s good both for the kids to get into a routine and it’s good for the adults as well for us to recover and bounce back and I love the idea of also what the governor was saying that the one mom had her kids go down and help and volunteer. I think that’s great so they also learn how to give back to their community and feel a part of it. And that’s the biggest thing in a disaster is you want to feel a sense of control and they want to feel like they can control what they can.
Christine Chasek, director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska at the University of Nebraska at Kearney talks about the importance of pets
ChasekPets.mp3
When you lose something that’s close and dear to you … our pets become part of our family. On the farm, livestock that you care for too. They become a part of your life and your everyday routine and when they’re gone, it really creates a void. There’s a lot of grief and so building into those things – our rituals — things such as having a goodbye service, a memorial service or something to help kids grieve that loss is really important. And allow kids to talk about that. I would also add that limiting some exposure for us and for kids – some of the pictures we see especially some of the livestock that we’ve seen. It just brings up and triggers that loss again. In terms of disaster, people can feel overwhelmed and start feeling maybe irritable, maybe angry, upset.
Christine Chasek, director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska at the University of Nebraska at Kearney talks about reaching out for help
ChasekResilency
Farmers, they’re the first ones to give help but they’re also the last ones to want to receive help and that’s where we really want to give out the message that it’s ok to ask for help. Some people just don’t have as many resources as other do and prices have been down, there’s been so many things out of their control. What really helps your emotional well-being is when you feel like you’re in control and that you can bounce back. And so this has been an amazing time, I think, in our state’s history of all the help that’s been offered and that’s one of the stages actually of going through a natural disaster. In our waves of our mental health responses. We’re in the heroic phase and so that’s the phase where people rally together and it’s a time of great energy and action. That’s great and it’s also followed by another phase when that starts to fade and help starts to go away. Life is normal for everyone else. The people left still picking up the pieces can really feel a sense of stress and being overwhelmed. And that’s on the behavioral health side where we start coming in and doing our work. Trying to get people to say it’s ok for help.
Christine Chasek, director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska at the University of Nebraska at Kearney talks about the stress on Nebraska’s agricultural community.
ChasekStressful
Any kind of natural disaster definitely takes a toll on our emotional well-being – kind of taxes our resources and we had the floods in part of the state, we also had the blizzard out in the Panhandle. Agriculture folks have really been going through a lot of stress and they do – it’s a highly stressful occupation and so when you add a natural disaster on top of that, it can really take a toll on folks. A flood, a blizzard, we had plenty of warning but the problem with that is we tend to get really anxious and fearful of what’s coming. And so people, we have no control over what’s going to happen and so that loss of control can really make people feel like they feel helpless, hopeless, so waiting it out can be really stressful on folks.
Aaron Yoder, Ph.D., UNMC associate professor, Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Environmental Health talks about the importance of forming support networks now.
YoderCrisisMode
It’s in the weeks and months to come we really know people are going to be feeling this impact. They’re really in crisis mode right now – going back into places they haven’t been back to in a while to get things cleaned up. But when things slow down and help goes away and volunteers go away, we want to make sure we still support them. Forming those networks of support right now, whether they’re in our communities or online or wherever they may be and continuing that connection even when the crisis situation goes away.
Aaron Yoder, Ph.D., UNMC associate professor, Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Environmental Health talks about some of the personal safety issues after the flood waters recede.
YoderSafety
The first thing we try to emphasize is personal safety – keeping yourself safe and not exposing yourself either to the chemicals or biologicals that could be in the water. The water we deal with should be considered contaminated until we know otherwise. There’s also the physical hazard of the structures we may be going back to as well as other things floating in the water. We saw some of the footage with dead animals and other things like that. we also know that there are some wild animals that may be harboring in our homes and buildings that we want to watch out for as well.