WTC Records Folder 0128 Disaster Information General label, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Responding to Terrorism Victims - Oklahoma City and Beyond Page 4 of 6

experiencing long work hours, competing intensely for stories, and undergoing prolonged exposure to the bomb site, shattered survivors, and stressed rescuers.

When the Center closed, Governor Frank Keating named the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) as the lead agency to coordinate and conduct mental health crisis response services. The Center became Project Heartland on May 15, 1995, and was supported by grants from FEMA and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). Project Heartland continued to provide an extensive array of victim services.

Resource Coordination Committee (Unmet Needs Committee)

Recognizing the need for an umbrella group that would pool information and help coordinate funding for victim services, approximately 20 agencies convened in May 1995. Known both as the Resource Coordination Committee and the Unmet Needs Committee, the group quickly grew to encompass 80 agencies. Representatives met weekly to determine and help fill unmet victim needs stemming from the bombing. This group continues to meet 5 years later to review requests from victims, survivors, family members, and disaster workers and allocates a decreasing supply of funds.

From its beginning, the Committee focused on filling service gaps—many services concerned financial and leave benefits and the many needs created by the bombing that insurance did not cover including shattered windshields, car repairs, babysitter costs for children whose center was destroyed, and eyeglasses. In response to a flood of inquiries about access to benefits and legal entitlements, the Attorney Liaison from the U.S. Attorney's Office worked closely with the Committee and numerous victims throughout the first year to find attorneys who could provide pro bono legal counseling and troubleshoot benefit problems with agency bureaucracies.

Crisis Intervention

Federal authorities immediately recognized the bombing's traumatic impact on surviving victims, family members, rescue workers, allied professionals, and the community-at-large. By the end of the first day, April 19, 1995, OVC placed a nine-member crisis intervention team on the ground in Oklahoma to work with both the victims and the people responding to the disaster. The team, composed of professionals from across the country, met with victims and trained law enforcement officials, emergency services personnel, clergy, medical professionals, and school officials.? Other Federal and State agencies sent personnel to provide assistance.

Death Notification and Recovery of Remains

The difficulty in recovering and positively identifying the bodies of the bombing victims delayed official death notifications to the families. In addition, the need to collect evidence from the bodies and conduct autopsies meant that families experienced further delays in the release of the remains and the ability to proceed

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/respterrorism/chap2.htrrd 9/29/01

NYC-WTC 000137316