CVN Aug. 2010, page 3
ISN0199 1949
Thomas D. Lopes
Publisher/
Geneal Manager
Dr. Norman Araujo
Chief Advisor
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Combined, the Andrews have been with FEMA for 17 years and have been deployed to 52 disasters. While they share many of the same qualities, the duo has never had an opportunity to work together on the same disaster—until now.
Getting the call from the FEMA Automated Deployment Database (ADD) to report to a disaster was routine for the Andrews. They would receive the call, pack their things and get ready for deployment. This time, however, it was different. Father and son were heading to the same place, FEMA Disaster 1894; a disaster declared in Rhode Island, just a state away from their homes on Cape Cod.
Andrews Jr. was a teenager when his father first began working as a DAE in FEMA.
“Growing up, I would see him pack and leave for disasters,” Andrews Jr. says of his father. “I knew he was leaving to help disaster survivors and I was proud of him for doing that.”
Thinking back, Andrews Jr. remembers a story that his father shared about a particular disaster: “I remember my father talking about how he went out to find a household located deep in the woods of Maine,” Andrews Jr. recalls. “He went out to help people whose lives and property were impacted because of something over which they had no control.”
What Andrews described was his father’s first disaster. It was the Great Ice Storm of 1998. A series of storms that hit Maine beginning Jan. 4, 1998, left six dead and millions in the dark. The entire state was declared a disaster by President Clinton and residents and businesses felt its effect for many months.
As a Community Relations Specialist, Andrews went door to door meeting with people. Maine became his temporary home from the time he was deployed in February through April of 1998.
“We would visit special cases in rural areas of the state where we had to travel down these narrow, dirt roads in these small towns with populations of less than 100 people,” says Andrews Sr. “It was one of my best disasters because I got to really learn what FEMA was all about.”
There would be many more disasters for Andrews Sr. –41 more to be exact—from small to catastrophic.
Two of the most catastrophic disasters for Andrews Sr. were Sept.11 and Hurricane Katrina.
“Katrina was more overwhelming than 9/11 because of the geographic size of the disaster, 9/11 was more self-contained but not any less painful,” says Andrews Sr. “It was devastating to experience both disasters.”
Hurricane Katrina, the largest natural disaster in FEMA history, was responsible for approximately 1,207 reported deaths including 1,000 in Louisiana, 200 in Mississippi, and seven in Florida. Katrina left $75 billion in damages. Andrews Sr. helped to direct and support a Community Relations staff of more than1,200 people during that disaster.
Katrina also remains fresh in his son’s mind, not only because of the shared devastation, but because it was his first disaster.
Before joining FEMA, Andrews Jr. was running a motorcycle and water craft repair shop that he launched in his home town of Mashpee, Mass. The town is one of the remaining enclaves to the Wampanoag Nation, the tribe that greeted the pilgrims in Plymouth in 1620.
“I got my entrepreneurial spirit from him,” Andrews Jr. says of his father. “I started my business 10 years ago, but it was getting really monotonous and I wanted to try something new that involved helping others.”
It was at that point that Andrews Jr. was able to fully appreciate what his father had experienced for years as a FEMA DAE. More importantly, it is what inspired him to follow in his father’s footsteps and join FEMA.
In 2005, while his father was in New Orleans helping to lead the Community Relations effort, Andrews Jr. was deployed for the first time to Atlanta, Ga. to talk with Katrina survivors temporarily housed in hotels.
“I heard some truly tragic stories and was really moved by them,” says Andrews Jr. “I was brought to tears by some of their stories—they touched me on so many levels.”
While Community Relations enabled him to assist survivors, Logistics provides him with the opportunity to support other FEMA DAEs. Andrews Jr. soon transferred from Community Relations to Logistics, where he could apply his business skills. In Logistics, Andrews Jr. has worn the hat of support branch director, deputy chief and supply unit leader.
However, Andrews Sr. has held many titles within Community Relations including: Specialist, Manager, Unit Leader, Special Assistant for Field Administration and
Assistant External Affairs Officer-Community Relations, and enjoyed the opportunities all along the way.
“When you are deployed to a disaster, and live and work as a DAE in that community, you get a real feel for how the rest of the nation lives,” says Andrews Sr. “I enjoy being in the field and speaking with residents and businesses. It never becomes routine because everyone is different and all cases are different.”
Having worked more than 40 disasters, Andrews, like many DAEs, has seen devastation. And he has had to balance hearing stories of tragedy and despair with listening to stories of joy and hope.
“There are so many,” Andrews Sr. says shaking his head. “Some will always stay with me.”
Hurricane Georges, which slammed Puerto Rico on Sept. 21, 1998, killing eight and leaving behind $2 billion in damages, is one disaster he will never forget.
People, living in the poorer areas of Puerto Rico, lost everything they had when 115 mph winds from the Category 4 hurricane blew away their homes made of plywood and corrugated metal. Many of these people lived at the tops of the mountain and were difficult to reach. FEMA DAEs could not get to the survivors.
National guardsmen, however, used Humvees to transport FEMA DAEs to the hilltops.
“When I got to the top, I met this woman,” Andrews says. “She had only two walls left in her home. She was crouched down looking through her personal items. Just us being there, dressed in our blue FEMA shirts, was calming to her.”
Three weeks later, Andrews returned to the same area in Puerto Rico.
“I will never forget this,” Andrews begins. “There was a man running down from the hills and he was waving and waving something in his hand as he ran toward me.
“He was all dirty from cleaning up after the disaster and rebuilding his home, but he was so happy. When he reached us he hugged me and said thank, thank you ‘Now I can build my house with cement blocks.’ He was thanking me for the $5,000 check received from FEMA.”
Each disaster has provided the Andrews duo with a unique experience. And this disaster is no different.
While they make time to fish and golf together, Disaster-1894 has enabled the duo to see one another in action.
“It’s been enjoyable to see him in operation,” Andrews says of his son. “He does a great job and I am proud of him.”
“This disaster has enabled us to spend a lot more time together,” the younger Andrews says. “It’s a blessing to be able to bond with my father while we are deployed—a real blessing.”
Nelson Andrews Sr.
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FEMA -
In The City, and the group's first #1 R&B hit (a cover of Hall & Oates' "She's Gone") and first top 10 pop hit ("It Only Takes A Minute"). While a number of other groups were covering similar stylistic territory at the time, the wonderfully tight harmonies and consistently solid song selection set Tavares apart.
If their first three albums set the Tavares brothers up for success, the fourth, Sky High, (produced by Motown veteran writer/producer Freddie Perren) and its international hits, "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel" and "Don't Take Away the Music," led the group to the "A" list of popular black artists. Perren moved the group to a hotter beat-heavy sound not hinted at in Tavares' earlier releases and the timing couldn't have been better, as the disco boom was about to explode. The group teamed with Perren again for their Love Storm and Future Bound LPs in 1977 and 1978. It was at this point that Tavares hit an unexpected pivotal moment: it's cover of the Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman" was included on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, giving the group its greatest exposure ever (as well as its only Grammy award) but bringing with it a label that Tavares would spend years trying to shake - that of "Disco Group."
Interestingly, it was at disco's peak in 1979 that the brothers took a counter-industry turn, releasing the ballad-drenched Madam Butterfly LP. Produced by Philly veteran Bobby Martin, this disc highlighted the group's Soul foundation, especially on the hit "Never Had A Love Like This Before" and three Sam Dees' ballads (including the incredible "Let Me Heal The Bruises"). Tavares then teamed with pop producers Bobby Colomby and David Foster for Supercharged, a solid but underappreciated disc that spawned a minor hit with "Bad Times."
Unfortunately, as 1980 arrived, the music industry focused its efforts on self-contained funk bands, and traditional "producer's" soul groups such as the Spinners, the Stylistics and the Temptations were having trouble getting promotion and airplay. This industry tide change led Capitol Records to lessen its promotional focus on Tavares. The timing of this decision was ironic, as the Tavares brothers arguably found their sound as writers and arrangers in 1980 with Love Uprising, a
wonderful, airy album that was perhaps their most pleasing and personal disc, but which fell flat on the charts. Their next LP, Loveline (featuring the songs of a promising young writer named Kashif), met a similar fate.
Faced with Capitol's neglect, the brothers went in search of a new label, and in 1982 found a temporary home in RCA's young black music division. They released two albums for RCA, New Directions and Words and Music, which featured the Grammy-nominated "Penny For Your Thoughts" and their final R&B hit, "Deeper In Love," but the albums were overall an artistic step down from the group's highest moments.
It was in 1979 that I first met the Tavares brothers. They were appearing in Detroit with Lou Rawls and I was covering the concert for a university newspaper. They were still at their peak of popularity, but were incredibly humble, polite and really helpful to a young music writer. Most of all, they made it clear in conversations that, as much as they loved making music, their families and their brotherly relationship came first. Ralph Tavares and I kept in touch over the next few years, during the group's frustrating final years with Capitol and their time with RCA, right through to the time of a difficult decision that Ralph made in 1983. "One day I came off the road and saw my little girl in a snowsuit. That look on her face told me, 'You can't do your best unless you're home.'" So Ralph resigned from the group in 1983 to spend more time with his wife and their two children. He
become a court officer in New Bedford, a position he held until his retirement earlier this decade.
The remaining four brothers continued to tour internationally and in 1994 released Check It Out, a CD of newly recorded versions of their past hits, on Canadian label Unidisc. The album found the brothers in fine voice, but the instrumentation and production quality were low-budget. Brother Tiny later left the group and the remaining three continue to tour regularly, appearing in disco revival shows around the world with acts like Gloria Gaynor and KC and the Sunshine Band. Tiny rejoined the group in 2009.
There are a few Tavares compilations currently available, the best of which are the two disc Anthology and the single disc Capitol Gold: The Best of Tavares. Also a number of their albums are available as import CDs.
In a decade that highlighted so many groups, from the last Detroit days of Motown to the arrival of hot sounds in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, the Tavares brothers proved themselves to be incredibly versatile, effectively covering all of those sounds as well as a unique sound that they introduced in Love Uprising. Their wonderful harmonies and consistently strong selection of material made every one of their albums a keeper.
By Chris Rizik
L-r Butch, Chubby, Ralph - State Representative, Tom Lopes now CVN publisher; Governor Michael Dukakis, Pooch, Tiny, Brian Panela, manager and John Centeio, road manager. The Paul Revere award was presented to the group in order to sound the alarm that the “TAVARES” are coming and can’t be stopped
Govenor Dukakis and then State Representative, Tom Lopes presents
TAVARES with special “Paul Revere Musical Award”
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TAVARES #!