A 1990 Broadway play revolved around the concept that a maximum of "Six Degrees of Separation" is between any two people. In Pittsburgh, it's more like two degrees, as shown by the hasty, but effective formation of an institutional response to the Katrina and Rita hurricane crises.

		Clarke Thomas is a Post-Gazette senior editor (clt34@pitt.edu).

The story is worth telling in a Pittsburgh that often denigrates itself, especially concerning our divisiveness on so many matters. The Institute of Politics at the University of Pittsburgh is compiling a full report on the subject. Here is what it is finding.

The story starts with Dr. Edith Shapira, a psychiatrist and the daughter of the late Frieda Shapira, a legendary figure in Pittsburgh's health and welfare fields. On the third day of watching on TV the Katrina-caused misery in New Orleans, Dr. Shapira called Mayor Tom Murphy to ask what Pittsburgh was doing, especially in terms of preparing for evacuees.

Based on his response, she began a series of calls to people she knew through her service on the boards of numerous community organizations. These included Pittsburgh School Board President Bill Isler, University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, Greg Spencer of the Manchester Youth Development Center and Esther Bush of the Urban League. She joined forces with her brother, Giant Eagle CEO David Shapira, to involve the business community.

The result was that Mayor Murphy and county Chief Executive Dan Onorato called a series of meetings for the next morning, Sept. 2, of government, nonprofit and business officials. Despite the short notice, 50 people gathered. A press conference was held that afternoon to alert the public to the Pittsburgh response.

An important first step was Mr. Onorato suggesting that Department of Human Services Director Marc Cherna head the effort. His post made him a natural.

In the meantime, Patty Trainer and Bradley Burger at Goodwill Industries had drawn up a plan designating specific persons and organizations to provide services in 14 different "domains" -- everything from housing to food to employment to education to "spiritual/bereavement." This became the template for Mr. Cherna's organizing the response effort.

Spurring action over the Labor Day weekend were reports that a planeload of 250 evacuees would be arriving the next week. Mr. Cherna, having watched on TV the misery and bumbling in the New Orleans Convention Center and the Superdome, ruled against the use of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center (no showers) or the sports stadiums on the North Shore.

Fortunately, the Pittsburgh Project organization had just the right temporary-care facility on Charles Street on the North Side, a group of buildings centered around the closed Annunciation Church. The Pittsburgh Project with 308 beds provides dormitory facilities during the summer for church and other youth groups from across the country to do charitable works here. Another "natural," because its director, Saleem Gubril, a Presbyterian pastor, and his staff have an accumulated knowledge in dealing with waves of people from afar.

The community's experience with the flooding by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 prompted another early decision. And that was, first, to set up a one-stop shop -- in the former Annunciation sanctuary -- rather than having evacuees go to agencies scattered around town. Robert Stumpp of Mr. Cherna's agency was put in charge.

The second decision was to use the case-management system of assigning to each incoming family a specific social-service professional to escort its members around the room to the various institutional booths -- such as Social Security to reinstate cards and benefits, Urban League for housing, Giant Eagle for food vouchers and phone cards, Goodwill Industries for clothing and household needs and local banks for establishing credit. The case manager continues to be the mentor of that family or individual as long as they are in need in Pittsburgh. Planners are bearing in mind a lesson learned by Jewish groups in helping Soviet Jewish refugees during recent decades -- it takes three Pittsburgh families per refugee family to make resettlement work

The Wednesday after Labor Day, hundreds of agency people showed up for a standing-room-only meeting in the Regional Enterprise Tower Downtown to carry forward plans. Mr. Cherna's leadership and the basic Trainer/Burger organizational outline made it possible to hand out assignments to get action started.

The meeting demonstrated that in Pittsburgh the degrees of separation are much less than six because people know each other, their capabilities and shortcomings, and therefore whom to trust. Those present describe the exhilaration in the room and the selfless mood of cooperation among agencies that sometimes jostle each other for publicity and funding. It was Pittsburgh at its best, one agency head said.

As it turned out, that initial expectant mood was somewhat deflated when the news arrived that a huge planeload wasn't coming after all. But before long, it became evident that dozens of evacuees were arriving in Pittsburgh by car and bus. Even though most were drawn here because of relatives or friends, they still needed the processing help at the Pittsburgh Project location to help get their lives back together again. By this week, when the program finally ended, that figure had reached 353 persons.

And all of this because one woman utilized Pittsburgh's less than six degrees of separation to tap our city's compassion and resources.