Houston - If you want to volunteer, here is a view from gound zero...
09-06-2005, 10:10 AM
#1
6600 rpm clutch dump of death Administrator
Thread Starter
Houston - If you want to volunteer, here is a view from gound zero... Our local church in Baytown has been handling evacuees since they originally started to roll into town. I've had the opportunity to see folks from that perspective. The Red Cross shut down the local shelters and decided to move the evacuees to the GRB, but since many of our evacuees were already settled, the local churches have just decided it was better to continue to provide support rather than force them to be displaced again.
We've been able to house 150 folks at the peak point at my church. As of now we have approximately 26 people at the church. The hope is to help folks get into more permanent housing of some sort by the end of the week. We're helping folks get into permanent housing, and helping them get set up with jobs wherever we can.
On the other side, several of the guys here at work decided to go volunteer in Houston, and one of them decided to type it all up so that folks could have more clear understanding of what exactly is going on from a first hand perspective. Here is my buddy Dan's perspective on the whole deal.
I decided to throw together a quick email for everyone describing my experience at Reliant Center today working with the victims of hurricane Katrina. I thought it might be useful for anyone who's considering volunteering at one of the area shelters or who was wondering how the effort was going.
I originally went to the George R Brown convention center today to sign up and volunteer with two of my friends. We registered at the desk where they asked for our names, contact numbers and availability for different shifts over the next week. The shifts ranged from 4 to 8 hours and went around the clock.
As it turned out, no one had arrived at the convention center yet so there wasn't much to do. We decided to take the light rail to the Astrodome (2 bucks for an all day pass) to see if we could help out over there.
We arrived at the dome to a scene of confusion. There were people and news crews everywhere and there was no clear indication of where to go. We ended up wandering around until someone directed us to one of the gates where they had been taking volunteers. We went there, however, they were no longer accepting volunteers at that point. One of the ladies then directed us over to Reliant Arena to go help out.
Reliant Arena was home to 3 shelters, a kitchen with dining area and a medical triage area. The confusion outside was amplified in here by about 10 times.
There were tons of evacuees milling about, a handful of Red Cross members and some medical staff. We wandered around for awhile asking people if they needed help or if they knew where the volunteers were to go. We were finally referred to a Red Cross representative who had one of the kids lead us to Shelter C to lend a hand. We basically wandered around the shelter for awhile when someone told us that we needed to sign in again. After much more confusion, we were finally directed over to Reliant Center to get registered.
Things were much more in order at Reliant Center and it seemed to be the center of the action as a command center. We were directed upstairs via the escalators to a row of tables where we signed in.
NOTE: Anyone wishing to volunteer at the Astrodome/Reliant complex should go directly to the 2nd floor of the Reliant Center. You will simply be wasting your time otherwise.
We went through a quick orientation once we signed in.
They basically gave us the low down on the situation and what we could expect. Here's what I can recall from orientation:
1) The people should be referred to as "evacuees" and not "refugees". They do not like to be referred to as refugees.
2) Houston is the epicenter for all disaster relief coordination in Texas. They told us that all of the evacuees come to Houston to get processed before being sent to any other shelter in the state. All of this traffic was basically coming in via the Astrodome/Reliant complex.
3) We needed to be careful at all times since we did not know what to expect given what happened at the Superdome.
4) Alot of these people, including many children, are alone and separated from their families with no knowledge of their whereabouts or condition. The told us to be prepared for some seriously heavy emotional issues.
Honestly, that's all that I can remember right now but there really wasn't that much to it to begin with. We gathered at a staging area on the 2nd floor and waited to be called to duty in small groups of 5 or 10. They ended up taking our entire group of 50 plus people outside to one corner of the parking lot. This area ended up being the ingress point for all of the evacuees arriving on buses; both "sanctioned" and "renegage". In fact, the renegade bus that was on the news was parked at one end of the lot. We were led to a large tent out in the parking lot and given another quick orientation on what lie ahead by a police officer. He told us that we were primarily there to assist with the efforts of the other teams in place and register the evacuees as they came in. The main point that they were stressing is that the families needed to stay together. If one family member needed medical attention, that entire family would be pulled aside to the medical staging area. They were very concerned about keeping families together and trying to track down and reunite lost family members.
None of the buses had arrived yet so we busied ourselves with the mundane activities associated with setting up a staging area for people who were arriving in unknown condition. We were working side by side with state troopers, paramedics, firemen, doctors, nurses, the Air and Army National Guard, the Red Cross, FEMA, and the Disaster Medical Assistance Team
(DMAT) out of Colorado in the NMRT unit. According to their website: "The NMRT is a specialized response force designed to provide medical care following nuclear, biological, and/or chemical incidents. This unit is capable of providing mass casualty decontamination, medical triage, primary and secondary care to stabilize victims for transport to tertiary care facilities in a HAZMAT environment." All that I can tell you is that they STRONGLY urged us to use rubber gloves at all times. They had boxes of them everywhere.
We spent much of our initial time unloading boxes of water and hauling trash off to a big pile at the end of the row of porta potties. We also constructed barricades, setup a diaper changing station and moved gear around as needed. There wasn't a real plan in place and everyone was just sort of winging it. There was plenty to be done but no one was really in charge.
The type of people who were very useful in this environment were the self directed types who could find ways to be productive. There were many volunteers who were either just milling about or simply in the way of others that were trying to get things done. I did what seemed to be the most useful, namely I took the job that no one wanted to do (trash
detail) and worked on it until one of the many groups working around us would call for help with something.
It sort of had the same feel as that opening scene in M*A*S*H with all of the activity and the helicopters
flying overhead.
I didn't really keep track of the time since I was staying pretty busy so I'm not sure when the buses started rolling in. The procedure for processing the evacuees was as follows. First, they were pulled off of the bus and searched by a large group of state troopers. These officers also searched their luggage.
They confiscated any weapons or drugs that they turned up but did not try to prosecute anyone who was caught with these items. The officer in charge referred to it as a "freebie" and said that their basic intention was to make it safer in the shelters when these people arrived. Once they were done with that, they were given food and water and brought to a row of tables under some tents to get registered.
Anyone who needed medical attention was taken to one of the medical tents where they were assessed and sometimes treated. They were given plastic bags with supplies in it such as snacks, baby food, juice, diapers, bottles, etc. and given wrist bands. The wrist bands were absolutely necessary to gain entry into any of the shelters setup on the premises. They were then loaded back onto the buses and shuttled over to the shelters.
We did this all morning and afternoon until we were worn out. It was exhausting on both a physical and emotional level. These people looked like absolute hell when they got off of the buses and were in a state of shock. It was sad to seem them shuffling around in a daze. We did what we could to help them get adjusted but they clearly needed more help.
Hopefully they would find it in one of the shelters.
On a positive note, it was really nice seeing everyone pitching in to help. I was amazed at the amount of effort people were putting in. Even though it wasn't very well organized on the volunteer side, things were getting done very quickly and efficiently. It was clear that we were making a difference by being and everyone seemed to appreciate what we were doing. I even passed people on the way home who were loading their cars with supplies and getting ready to head to one of the drop off points. I've never seen a community come together on this large a scale before.
We've been able to house 150 folks at the peak point at my church. As of now we have approximately 26 people at the church. The hope is to help folks get into more permanent housing of some sort by the end of the week. We're helping folks get into permanent housing, and helping them get set up with jobs wherever we can.
On the other side, several of the guys here at work decided to go volunteer in Houston, and one of them decided to type it all up so that folks could have more clear understanding of what exactly is going on from a first hand perspective. Here is my buddy Dan's perspective on the whole deal.
I decided to throw together a quick email for everyone describing my experience at Reliant Center today working with the victims of hurricane Katrina. I thought it might be useful for anyone who's considering volunteering at one of the area shelters or who was wondering how the effort was going.
I originally went to the George R Brown convention center today to sign up and volunteer with two of my friends. We registered at the desk where they asked for our names, contact numbers and availability for different shifts over the next week. The shifts ranged from 4 to 8 hours and went around the clock.
As it turned out, no one had arrived at the convention center yet so there wasn't much to do. We decided to take the light rail to the Astrodome (2 bucks for an all day pass) to see if we could help out over there.
We arrived at the dome to a scene of confusion. There were people and news crews everywhere and there was no clear indication of where to go. We ended up wandering around until someone directed us to one of the gates where they had been taking volunteers. We went there, however, they were no longer accepting volunteers at that point. One of the ladies then directed us over to Reliant Arena to go help out.
Reliant Arena was home to 3 shelters, a kitchen with dining area and a medical triage area. The confusion outside was amplified in here by about 10 times.
There were tons of evacuees milling about, a handful of Red Cross members and some medical staff. We wandered around for awhile asking people if they needed help or if they knew where the volunteers were to go. We were finally referred to a Red Cross representative who had one of the kids lead us to Shelter C to lend a hand. We basically wandered around the shelter for awhile when someone told us that we needed to sign in again. After much more confusion, we were finally directed over to Reliant Center to get registered.
Things were much more in order at Reliant Center and it seemed to be the center of the action as a command center. We were directed upstairs via the escalators to a row of tables where we signed in.
NOTE: Anyone wishing to volunteer at the Astrodome/Reliant complex should go directly to the 2nd floor of the Reliant Center. You will simply be wasting your time otherwise.
We went through a quick orientation once we signed in.
They basically gave us the low down on the situation and what we could expect. Here's what I can recall from orientation:
1) The people should be referred to as "evacuees" and not "refugees". They do not like to be referred to as refugees.
2) Houston is the epicenter for all disaster relief coordination in Texas. They told us that all of the evacuees come to Houston to get processed before being sent to any other shelter in the state. All of this traffic was basically coming in via the Astrodome/Reliant complex.
3) We needed to be careful at all times since we did not know what to expect given what happened at the Superdome.
4) Alot of these people, including many children, are alone and separated from their families with no knowledge of their whereabouts or condition. The told us to be prepared for some seriously heavy emotional issues.
Honestly, that's all that I can remember right now but there really wasn't that much to it to begin with. We gathered at a staging area on the 2nd floor and waited to be called to duty in small groups of 5 or 10. They ended up taking our entire group of 50 plus people outside to one corner of the parking lot. This area ended up being the ingress point for all of the evacuees arriving on buses; both "sanctioned" and "renegage". In fact, the renegade bus that was on the news was parked at one end of the lot. We were led to a large tent out in the parking lot and given another quick orientation on what lie ahead by a police officer. He told us that we were primarily there to assist with the efforts of the other teams in place and register the evacuees as they came in. The main point that they were stressing is that the families needed to stay together. If one family member needed medical attention, that entire family would be pulled aside to the medical staging area. They were very concerned about keeping families together and trying to track down and reunite lost family members.
None of the buses had arrived yet so we busied ourselves with the mundane activities associated with setting up a staging area for people who were arriving in unknown condition. We were working side by side with state troopers, paramedics, firemen, doctors, nurses, the Air and Army National Guard, the Red Cross, FEMA, and the Disaster Medical Assistance Team
(DMAT) out of Colorado in the NMRT unit. According to their website: "The NMRT is a specialized response force designed to provide medical care following nuclear, biological, and/or chemical incidents. This unit is capable of providing mass casualty decontamination, medical triage, primary and secondary care to stabilize victims for transport to tertiary care facilities in a HAZMAT environment." All that I can tell you is that they STRONGLY urged us to use rubber gloves at all times. They had boxes of them everywhere.
We spent much of our initial time unloading boxes of water and hauling trash off to a big pile at the end of the row of porta potties. We also constructed barricades, setup a diaper changing station and moved gear around as needed. There wasn't a real plan in place and everyone was just sort of winging it. There was plenty to be done but no one was really in charge.
The type of people who were very useful in this environment were the self directed types who could find ways to be productive. There were many volunteers who were either just milling about or simply in the way of others that were trying to get things done. I did what seemed to be the most useful, namely I took the job that no one wanted to do (trash
detail) and worked on it until one of the many groups working around us would call for help with something.
It sort of had the same feel as that opening scene in M*A*S*H with all of the activity and the helicopters
flying overhead.
I didn't really keep track of the time since I was staying pretty busy so I'm not sure when the buses started rolling in. The procedure for processing the evacuees was as follows. First, they were pulled off of the bus and searched by a large group of state troopers. These officers also searched their luggage.
They confiscated any weapons or drugs that they turned up but did not try to prosecute anyone who was caught with these items. The officer in charge referred to it as a "freebie" and said that their basic intention was to make it safer in the shelters when these people arrived. Once they were done with that, they were given food and water and brought to a row of tables under some tents to get registered.
Anyone who needed medical attention was taken to one of the medical tents where they were assessed and sometimes treated. They were given plastic bags with supplies in it such as snacks, baby food, juice, diapers, bottles, etc. and given wrist bands. The wrist bands were absolutely necessary to gain entry into any of the shelters setup on the premises. They were then loaded back onto the buses and shuttled over to the shelters.
We did this all morning and afternoon until we were worn out. It was exhausting on both a physical and emotional level. These people looked like absolute hell when they got off of the buses and were in a state of shock. It was sad to seem them shuffling around in a daze. We did what we could to help them get adjusted but they clearly needed more help.
Hopefully they would find it in one of the shelters.
On a positive note, it was really nice seeing everyone pitching in to help. I was amazed at the amount of effort people were putting in. Even though it wasn't very well organized on the volunteer side, things were getting done very quickly and efficiently. It was clear that we were making a difference by being and everyone seemed to appreciate what we were doing. I even passed people on the way home who were loading their cars with supplies and getting ready to head to one of the drop off points. I've never seen a community come together on this large a scale before.
09-06-2005, 10:10 AM
#2
6600 rpm clutch dump of death Administrator
Thread Starter
They can still use alot of help out there so if you have any inkling of pitching in, get down to Reliant Center and head up to the second floor to register.
Be prepared to work when you get there. You can volunteer for specific jobs but there's no telling what you may end up doing. I spent all day in the blazing summer heat in a parking lot so be prepared for that too. I'm glad that I brought a hydration pack with me which doubled as a daypack. I kept my sunglasses, a hat, a large bandana, hand sanitizer, work gloves and some suntan lotion that I should have used in there. These were all very useful and I would recommend them to anyone showing up to volunteer.
Avoid bringing things like a purse or bag that's not physically strapped to you at all times. Also make sure that you have comfortable shoes since I spent the entire day walking.
That's about it. I think I'm going to take a shower and go to bed now.
Be prepared to work when you get there. You can volunteer for specific jobs but there's no telling what you may end up doing. I spent all day in the blazing summer heat in a parking lot so be prepared for that too. I'm glad that I brought a hydration pack with me which doubled as a daypack. I kept my sunglasses, a hat, a large bandana, hand sanitizer, work gloves and some suntan lotion that I should have used in there. These were all very useful and I would recommend them to anyone showing up to volunteer.
Avoid bringing things like a purse or bag that's not physically strapped to you at all times. Also make sure that you have comfortable shoes since I spent the entire day walking.
That's about it. I think I'm going to take a shower and go to bed now.
