Why SLOVOAD
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When disaster strikes—whether flood, hurricane, earthquake, or explosion—lives, homes, communities, and businesses may be damaged or destroyed. The people affected often need serious and substantial short- and long-term help to put their lives back together. Federal, state, and local governments supply resources; voluntary organizations also provide money, volunteers, material necessities, and a variety of expertise.
After Hurricane Camille (1969), it became clear to organizations that regularly helped disaster victims that their services were frequently duplicated and uncoordinated. For example, two organizations would be feeding disaster victims on opposite corners. Representatives from seven organizations began to meet on a regular basis to share their respective activities, concerns, and frustrations in disaster response. They developed National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD), which now has more than thirty members.
Local counterparts of the national organizations were encouraged to organize at the state level to form a Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster group (VOAD). In the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo and the earthquakes in northern California (both in 1989), it was abundantly clear that VOAD was necessary, for no one organization could handle disaster response on the scale required and cooperation at the regional, county, or metro-area level was crucial.
Major funding for SLOVOAD provided by: 
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