Birmingham Continues to Support CAP's Relief Efforts.
Yahoo! The VAN is BACK!!!! Thank you Stinnett Transmissions! 5601 First Ave. South 591-9950
(Left) Terry Stinnett hands Laura the keys to the van after TOTALLY REBUILDING THE TRANSMISSION! WOW!
CAP Hurricane Relief Update- March 20, 2007
The Lower Ninth Ward Medical Clinic is finally seeing patients. Yeah! We have been helping them get ready for a while. We also found another free clinic in New Orleans.
Emergency Communities in Plaquemines Parish New Orleans is looking for furniture for community center, ping pong table, table and folding chairs, couches etc. Old office furniture if in good condition would be great here.
CAT database is supporting disaster relief in GA and AL by listing organizations involved and posting their needs. Both locations have stressed NOT to send clothing. First aid kits are on the urgent needs list and we got a donation from Direct Relief International that enabled us to get a start on 400 kits. 40 kits were sent last Monday to a church in Enterprise and 40 to the warehouse in Americus. Thanks to Steven, Jessica and Kayla for helping out!
Our next big project is to support the W. Hancock Volunteer Fire and Rescue Dept. If you do nothing else, please read about them below. If you ever travel down I-10 in West Hancock Co. your lives may be in their hands one day and they desperately need our help now. I'm not a good fundraiser, but I'm going to give it a shot for these incredible people who are struggling to help their community. That said, I'm giving you a heads up that Teresa, our executive director (and my sister) and I will celebrate our birthdays (our birthdays being two days apart) with a FOOLISH FUNDRAISING PARTY (FFP) in April. (See April Update if you haven't peeked already :-0) We will be raising money for W. Hancock Fire Dept., CAP's Disaster Relief program and MBSH (Metropolitan Birmingham Services for the Homeless) If you would like to bring food or participate in the planning, please give me a call.
LifeSouth Community Blood Center, which supplies blood to hospitals in Dothan and Enterprise, needs donations to recoup a loss of 200 units, according to The Huntsville Times. The nonprofit organization operates donation centers in Albertville, Birmingham, Cullman, Decatur, Dothan, Florence, Huntsville, Montgomery, and Opelika. For more information about where or when to donate, call (888) 795-2707 or visit the LifeSouth website.
W. Hancock County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Hello Laura, If there is anything that you can do to rally assistance or help with this extraordinary situation it would be so appreciated. Also, if you could please post this on VOAD…a teacher in Hancock County recently told me a story of one of her students who stepped on a board that cracked, only to have his foot go through the body of a neighbor who was mostly “preserved” in the storm mud under the board. In another situation, an 8 year old boy died on the I-10 a couple of weeks ago after it took 40 minutes for a neighboring Fire Dept to bring the necessary tool needed to extricate him from the vehicle that he was trapped in. (The one they had was ruined by Katrina.) It is possible that he would have died anyway, but he certainly shouldn’t have died like that, suffering, with the Fire Dept. guys watching helplessly, trying to sustain him through a small access hole. It has to be draining for them to keep responding to calls with so much of their equipment missing. Their spirit is unbelievable. Unfortunately, these are only some of the stories related to this situation in West Hancock County. Best, Suzanne
SITUATION REPORT AT GROUND ZERO OF HURRICANE KATRINA’S LANDFALL: CRISIS AT WEST HANCOCK FIRE RESCUE – PEARLINGTON, MS
I’ve come to realize that most people don’t know where Hurricane Katrina made landfall – the eye of the storm landed at the mouth of the Pearl River, in western Hancock County, on August 29, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. The Eye of Hurricane Katrina made direct contact with the town of Pearlington, Mississippi. The hurricane’s 140 mile per hour sustained winds took hours to pass through Hancock County. The fierce winds whipped the violent storm surge (which was recorded at 34 feet at it’s highest point) miles inland. Every home and building in Pearlington was destroyed. West Hancock Fires Rescue conducted the initial Search and Rescue operations on their own. The town and its residents waited ten days for outside assistance to arrive.
The men and women of West Hancock Fire Rescue have seen and dealt with more catastrophic devastation than most people will ever see in their lives. In the past year and a half they have had to recover the remains of dozens of people that they have known for years – friends, neighbors, relatives, some horribly mutilated - from unbelievable wreckage. Personally, they have lost family, personal possessions, vehicles – every serving firefighter lost their own home. Chief Jones’s wife continues to serve as the Department’s Secretary and Treasurer, as she waits for an organ transplant. The story of these men and woman becomes even more extraordinary when one sees firsthand the totality of all that they’ve lost and the conditions they’ve continued to exist in over the past eighteen months, yet they persevere in answering the call to duty in order to keep their department alive and functional. Their firefighter brethren should be proud to call them one of their own.
The Situation at West Hancock Fire Rescue Today
The West Hancock Fire Rescue has primary (First Due) responsibility to a 75 square mile area in the Southwest corner of Hancock County, Mississippi – Ground Zero for Hurricane Katrina’s final and most catastrophic landfall. Their area of responsibility includes 18 miles of US Interstate-10 (13 miles in Mississippi and the first 5 miles of Louisiana), fifteen miles of HWY 90 and ten miles of HWY 607, in addition to all of the local and county roads in their area; they are responsible for the emergency response to an industrial port - Port Bienville, in Mississippi – and as most fire and rescue departments do, they also handle the wide range of emergency calls that come in to assist the residents and visitors of both Pearlington and West Hancock County. These calls often become more complex by virtue of the conditions that now exist.
West Hancock Fire Rescue is an all volunteer Fire and Rescue Department. The residents of this town lost 100% of their homes. The doors that they used to knock on for donations are all now gone, although many of the residents remain as they try to rebuild. The neighboring cities in Hancock County were heavily damaged, so they cannot help remedy this situation. The fire department is ineligible for grant monies because they do not have the 10% match of funds required to receive grants. It will be two more years before their tax base is rebuilt and they’re eligible for distribution of any local county funds. Meanwhile they have several complex situations they must be prepared for and respond to, so that they can be there for the residents, for the thousands of people that pass through each day on their roadways and for the volunteers who come to help rebuild this once beautiful community.
As of today the West Hancock Fire Rescue Department has about a three week supply of fuel left. They have been donated several fire trucks from fire departments throughout the country. They need our assistance in sustaining a fuel supply in order to continue to be able to respond to emergency calls.
These firefighters are also in need of everything from basic response equipment and supplies on up to things such as an extraction tool, Haz Mat suits, a ram and VHF radios. They unfortunately do not have the funds to fix anything, including donations, that needs even “just a little fixing”. As they stabilize and rebuild they are in need of their firefighter brothers and sisters, paramedics, EMT’s and others who are medically trained to come to Pearlington to support them in responding to calls, as they have lost more than 70% of their department members. Nine members struggle to man the department round the clock. Their call volume has increased 240% in 2006 to 2,400 calls. Every department member has lost their own home and struggles to juggle their paying jobs, rebuilding their own home and responding to the needs of a community that has already lost so much
The West Hancock Fire Rescue Department’s main Fire Station was located in Pearlington, Mississippi. They need help with funds to rebuild their fire station, which was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. They will need to rebuild, but on a site with a higher elevation, due to the flood risk at their current site. Today they deploy to their calls out of a trailer with the limited firefighting and rescue equipment that they have.
I know that the men and women of West Hancock Fire Rescue are so grateful for the outreach they have received in the weeks and months after Hurricane Katrina. They are determined to move themselves and their community past this situation. The reality is that they are in great need of physical and financial support in order to stabilize and rebuild - in what has now become an extraordinary situation, on top of an extraordinary situation
The immediate priorities of the West Hancock Fire Rescue are as follows: (Due to their unique situation they will need outside support for the next 24 months in order to continue serving the community.)
1- Fuel (gasoline and diesel) – $1,900 per month x the 23 months that they will need support...support the fire trucks for a week, or a month! 2- EMT and Medic Supplies – The needs are various and ongoing until the community & department are stabilized 3- Firefighting & Personal Safety Equipment – All of their equipment/assets were destroyed and need to be replaced.
4- Fire House Funds – The cost to rebuild the West Hancock Fire Station at the proper flood elevation is $345,000 (It could also possibly be done for a bit less, depending on the land.) 5- Firefighter, Paramedic & EMT Support – West Hancock Fire Rescue is in need of trained professionals to volunteer to come to the area to help them respond to calls, they are currently down to 9 department members who are providing round-the-clock response to all of their calls. *** This is a Call to Action to all First Responder brothers and sisters everywhere who would be willing to spend a day, a weekend or more down in Pearlington at the West Hancock Fire Rescue. Your presence would be of great physical and emotional help to this department. (Please contact the Department directly via the information on the website below to let them know when you can come to help them.)
A basic website has been reestablished at www.westhancockfirerescue.org Donations can be made directly to the Department. They are a non-profit. Please share this information with anyone you know who may help. Anyone that you know who is willing and able to help out, can also contact me via email or phone as indicated below with questions, to request a list of needed supplies or to coordinate support to this department. Upon understanding the severity of this situation, FedEx has agreed to assist with free shipping to Pearlington for those willing to donate supplies or equipment to WHFR. Anyone needing help with shipping should contact me directly to facilitate this.
A Final Note:
Since I first arrived in Mississippi – two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall - I have seen more than I ever could have ever imagined, and more than I could ever describe. I initially worked out of the Command Center along side of the Gulfport, Mississippi police in the chaotic first days after the storm. Over the past year and a half I have made eleven additional trips, totaling more than seven months in all – mostly to Mississippi, but also to New Orleans. When not in the Gulf I have continued to do whatever I could from my home, in Phoenix, to bring other volunteers, resources and funds in order to help our neighbors in the South. In the course of all of this I have heard many,many stories. Although much of this Region of our country has become a surreal world, the situation at West Hancock Fire Rescue is one of the most unsettling and compelling things that I’ve encountered since those first days; due to its severity, its duration, its all encompassing nature, due to the number of lives that have been and could be irrevocably affected by this situation – and because I know that few people are aware that they even exist, or what they are going through as I write this. All of this is just as strongly offset by the steadfastness, the character and the bravery of the members of the West Hancock Fire Rescue, who now need our support.
Warmest Regards, Suzanne Stahl Hands On Gulf Coast
Loraine, Linda & Christina putting together diabetic kits.
CAP Hurricane Relief Update - March 1, 2007
Through the LA Primary Care Assoc. we sent out 380 diabetic testing kits to 8 clinics in NOLA and surrounding area. (SWLA Center for Health Services, Teche Action Board, Primary Care Providers for a Healthy Feliciana, Louisiana Primary Care Assoc., Tensas Community Health Center, Health Care for the Homeless Center, Daughters of Charity, and The Medical Center- Catahoula Parish Hosp. Dist. #2). At least one clinic was in the Hurricane Rita area. One clinic in Baton Rouge will pick up kits at Common Ground. Angie Free Clinc will be picking up kits at D'Iberville along with a pallet of Depends that they urgently needed. Those were provided by Salvation Army in Biloxi.
Thanks to the Americorps gals, Deloris (and her husband James), Christine, and Betty who worked all day to get the 380 kits ready!
Our old friend, Major Mark Brown (formally of the Bham Salvation Army, now in Houston, TX) has made it possible for us to direct clinics, animal shelters etc. to the Salvation Army in NOLA for disinfectant liquid, and rubber gloves. They were all very excited to learn of this resource. Thanks Mark!!!!!!
A new (to us) warehouse in Longbeach, MS has become available to us as a drop off point. Thanks Dr. David Carl!!
Becky has been in and out of the hospital again for a second surgery to implant stints to help control excess fluid in her body. Please keep her in your thoughts. Last report, she is doing well and we hope to see her back around next week.
If you have a group that would like to do a collection campaign, get in touch with us at capbham@aol.com. West Hancock Co. Fire and Rescue needs some supplies and we have a request for baby packs for expectant mothers in Hurricane Rita area.
We are still looking for a space to move into. Everything in the warehouse that could be shipped out has been. We will still have some stuff to move though. :-)
As always, thanks for your support! Laura
Laura Katz Parenteau Admin. Assist./Disaster Relief Coord. City Action Partnership 1801 Third Ave. North Birmingham, AL 35203 205-251-0111 205-288-1317 cell 205-251-9055 fax www.CAPISDOWNTOWN.COM Email: CAPbham@aol.com
