When Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 28, it ripped open houses, flooded towns and left thousands of people in the Gulf states injured and homeless. Hurricane Rita in Texas and Hurricane Wilma in Florida followed in October.
Bill Westlake, 62, a Red Cross volunteer from Mountlake Terrace, is one of numerous disaster- relief volunteers who rushed in to help.
Westlake, a retired U.S. Coast Guard veteran, knew how to operate a forklift so he helped distribute food, clothes and medical supplies at a shelter in Baton Rouge, La.
“Seeing about 5,000 people in the shelter that were able to get along together so well just amazed me,” Westlake said. “They were grateful for the people that were there — especially when they found out you came from so far away.”
To date, the Snohomish County Red Cross chapter has sent about 170 volunteers to the Gulf states to help survivors and the effort is still going, said Coni Conner, the chapter’s disaster-services manager. Even today, the chapter has as many as 10 volunteers in the Gulf States and the American Red Cross headquarters in Washington D.C.
“That is what we train our volunteersº for is to be ready to help out in an emergency,” Conner said. “It was a tremendous success that we were able to train that many volunteers and to be continually sending them out.”
The volunteers who stayed in Snohomish County to respond to local disasters, like house fires, or support the volunteers in the Gulf states, are playing a key role.
“They are all heroes,” Conner said.
Some of the Red Cross volunteers also work with Emergency Services Coordinating Agency, a government agency that coordinates disaster preparedness and response for the cities of Brier, Edmonds, Kenmore, Lynnwood, Mill Creek, Mountlake Terrace and Woodway. The partnership will benefit all of South Snohomish County because the volunteers are coming back with valuable hands-on experience, said Dan Good, ESCA coordinator. That will be vital when South Snohomish County faces the next 100-year storm, an earthquake or other disaster.
“We are all partners in this business,” Good said. “I have found that during a disaster response, the jurisdiction lines tend to fade. We help one another to do what needs to be done.”
The Emergency Services Coordinating Agency, in particular, is assisted by two volunteer groups known as CERT and RACES, Good said. He estimated there are about 90 volunteers in all, but it’s hard to get a firm count because many people can and do belong to more than one volunteer group.
CERT, which stands for Community Emergency Response Team, is composed of residents who take specialized training to help others prepare for and recover from a disaster. Some people take the training to help their neighbors and family when the next disaster strikes their neighborhood. Others remain active go where and when they are needed.
RACES, which stands for Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, is a group of licensed radio operators who work with police, fire, medical and disaster relief personnel .
“These are the people who decide to give of themselves and significantly so to help their fellow human beings,” Good said. “It gives me hope.”
The work gives volunteers like Rita Duncan of Mountlake Terrace a deep sense of satisfaction. Duncan, a 61-year-old licensed amateur radio operator, set up hundreds of phone lines, computer connections and truck-mounted satellite dishes for disaster relief workers. Between mid-October to mid-November, she worked in Louisiana, Texas and Florida after the hurricanes hit as well as in Indiana during tornado season.
There is always a need for more volunteers, said Duncan, a retired telephone company project manager.
“I wish more people would try it,” Duncan said. “Our (Red Cross) chapter is in such desperate need of help. There is so much work to do.”
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