CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) – It is going to take a very long time for the emotional wounds to heal after last week’s deadly mass shooting in Chesapeake.
The city talked to 10 On Your Side about the resources available not just now, but for the long haul.
The City of Chesapeake is working to mobilize a family assistance center for those impacted by last week’s mass shooting. They say the trauma from this event can reach far and wide, impacting people who weren’t even in the store.
“You’re dealing with trauma, you are dealing with grief and this is something that in the immediate is obviously going to affect you,” said Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Healthcare Executive Director Ed Gonzalez.
The City of Chesapeake mobilized its emergency response team within minutes of the tragic shooting.
People who were inside Walmart were taken to the Chesapeake Conference Center, which served as the family notification center in the hours after the event.
Gonzalez says his team was in place quickly to provide counseling services and help reunite loved ones with their families.
“Obviously the work is hard because you’re dealing with trauma, a lot of anxiety, you’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty as community members start to come over to the center and just wait for information,” Gonzalez said.
At the conference center, there were counselors, chaplains and clinicians to help victims process the tragic event.
“The ability to help sit down with someone and process it out is helpful,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says this is unfortunately something they prepare for. He said the city just had a mass shooting response drill in early October.
“This is something that in terms of emergency operations command that we unfortunately plan for,” said Gonzalez. “We want to make sure that people’s roles and expectations are very clear and it was a seamless process.”
From firefighters to sheriff’s deputies to social services team members, Gonzalez said that everyone had a place and knew their role.
“It was very evident that everyone knew their role in terms of how we were there for the community,” said Gonzalez.
He says it’s not just about helping people in the moment. They want to help victims, family members and the community as a whole be able to process their grief on their own, too.
“It affects folks and here when it’s this close to home, folks are going to say what now and if they need to process that through that’s why we are here,” said Gonzalez. “We want to make sure that people can process their loss and it’s not only for victims’ families, it’s also the employees, the associates, it’s also the community at large and we need to be available to the community to meet those needs.”
A counselor from the Behavioral Health Center has been meeting with the first responders too to help them work through what they witnessed as well.
Right now Walmart has ongoing support at the Delta Hotel for employees and their families along with the family members of the victims. The City of Chesapeake hopes to mobilize its assistance center very soon.
“It’s clear that we want to take care of our community. It’s clear that we want to make sure that people get the right resources that they need,” said Gonzalez.
The City of Chesapeake says regardless of your connection to this event, know that there are resources to help you cope at their website.
Gonzalez says he’s thankful for the neighboring agencies that reached out to offer assistance, like The City of Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News and several others.
