As a federal agency, TVA is legally obligated to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in its disaster recovery efforts when requested, but for the past 35 years, the non-profit TVA-initiated retiree organization, Bicentennial Volunteers, Inc., has fulfilled TVA’s legal obligation, rather than TVA’s active workforce.
TVA continues to support FEMA’s disaster recovery endeavors (first through BVI, then through a dedicated nonprofit organization created just for this purpose, National Emergency Assistance (NEA).
When NEA’s employees respond to requests from FEMA to assist with national disaster work, they may find themselves in any state throughout the U.S. In the last 35 years, NEA has been deployed to no less than 42 states and two US territories. NEA specializes in helping FEMA with public assistance, focusing on damages incurred to private nonprofit organizations and publicly owned facilities (roads, bridges, courthouses, schools, wastewater treatment plants, electrical distribution, city parks, etc.).
NEA is made up of mostly of TVA retirees. Because the majority of NEA employees begin as retirees, the work force is an older group. NEA employees range in age from early 50s to mid-80s. Both NEA and FEMA value their previous and current work experience regardless of age.
By working in all the states and territories, many NEA employees have experienced unique opportunities. To highlight a few NEA experiences, they have worked with many indigenous tribes located throughout the United States, monitored debris removal from shrimp boats in the Gulf of Mexico, flown in helicopters and charter planes to be able to see natural disaster damages and experienced white-out blizzards in October. And most importantly, they have seen that each state, each city, each town has its own beauty and its own good people.
Currently, NEA has about 70 people deployed to 12 different disasters throughout the 50 states and the seven territories. The average NEA employee has been on nine deployments. Those who give it a try tend to like the work.
“I’ve met the nicest people in the world,” Bill Heald, currently deployed to California, said. “I’ve been doing this work since 2005, and I like helping the communities.”
Monica Cross, who is preparing to deploy to Minnesota – her 17th deployment, concurred, “I like seeing different parts of the US and its territories and meeting new people. I love the job.”
As part of NEA’s 35-year anniversary celebration, the Program Managers, Susan Self and Chris Slaton, are visiting each deployment location to recognize the employees whose deployments have brought us to this point with a special pin.
NEA has an active workforce of around 130 employees, and they hire new employees on average every two years. New hires are trained in FEMA’s policies, regulations and the way FEMA does business before being deployed. NEA strives to match each new hire with an experienced coach. Future opportunities will be communicated through BVI’s newsletter at https://mybvi.org.