Red Cross's Rio Hondo Chapter here in Whittier had an orientation for volunteers to be deployed to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama this week. I went. Three hours later I am oriented and ready to be called and deployed as soon as I tell them the date I would be available. Deployments are 9-21 days long.
Will I go? My current work contract with MEDA ends on September 30--so if I am free starting October 1, that's my deployment date.
Here are some of the things they said at the orientation: Whatever you think it is like there--it's a lot worse! Until this week, 9/11 was the biggest disaster that the Red Cross has ever responded to. Hurricane Katrina is many times greater than that in terms of the thousands of square miles, millions of affected people. The relief agencies divide up the work:
Red Cross buys food from Sysco and delivers it to the Southern Baptist convention's men's club which has hundreds of mobile kitchens that were driven into to affected area as soon as the roads were cleared.
I was amazed at the logistical challenge they and other relief agencies face. They have deployed 6,000 volunteers already, have opened 367 shelters in less than a week including the Astrodome in Houston which houses 15,000. The mobile kitchens are serving 20,000 meals every single day.
Get your hepatitis A vaccination and a tetanus booster and let's go! Next orientation meetings are at Wednesday, September 7, 2005, at 6:00 p.m. and again on Friday. For more information in Whittier, clike here.
No comments:
Post a Comment