Locals reach out to Hurricane Katrina victims

Published 6:44 am Monday, March 3, 2008

Enterprise staff

Many people from South Snohomish and North King counties are volunteering and working to help those impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

“Obviously my heart goes out to the victims,” said Lyn Gross, the South Snohomish County emergency services director. “And my heart goes out to the people who are trying to help them. They do not have enough resources. And everything is just working against them… . They are putting every effort to what they can and trying to pull together enough resources to make a difference.”

“Keep these people in your prayers,” Gross said. “It is going to be a long, long recovery.”

Here are some of the efforts being made and ways to help:

Fund-raisers and events

• The Snohomish County Deputy Sheriffs Association and the reserve deputy organization established a fund at Bank of America to aid public safety officers affected by the hurricane. Donations can be made to the “COPS Helping Cops” Fund at any Bank of America branch. All money raised will help fire and police officers who need assistance.

• If you’re shopping at the Alderwood mall, look for envelopes to mail donations to the American Red Cross. There will be signs at the guest services desk. After Tuesday, Hurricane Katrina relief donation sites will be set up throughout the mall.

• Calvary Fellowship at 23302 56th Ave. W. in Mountlake Terrace is collecting donations for hurricane victims. For more information, call 425-775-3422.

• Word of Life Church, 4100 200th St. SW, Lynnwood, is accepting donations to purchase toiletry items for refugees. For information, call 425-776-5433.

• Pastor Casey Treat and the Christian Faith Center near Mill Creek are working with churches such as the Destiny World Prayer Center in the Southeast to assist those in need. Starting Sunday, Sept. 4, the church planned to take up offering for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The 8,000 members that belong to the church hope to raise $20,000.

“We want to do something because people are hurting and they need help. We want to show that God can have a positive impact in our lives,” Treat said.

• Groundwork on a coordinated donation effort has begun among representatives of Edmonds city government and area churches, according to Linda Carl, executive assistant to the mayor. Details on how the public can be involved will be publicized as they are finalized, she said.

• Stevens Hospital employees will send contributions to the Red Cross and Salvation Army, reported a hospital spokesman.

• Food Lifeline, in Shoreline, is dedicated to providing food and supplies to hurricane victims, said Linda Nageotte, president and CEO. Rather than donate food, Nageotte says the best way residents can help is by making a financial contribution. Because many hurricane victims do not have cooking facilities and the ability to prepare a meal, Food Lifeline has been identifying inventory to send to Gulf Coast areas. If residents donate food, it will likely stay local, to replace outgoing supplies.

“Funds people contribute will be used to move truckloads of food, water and other needed supplies to individuals impacted,” Nageotte said.

Working in conjunction with America’s Second Harvest, Food Lifeline staff are sending truckloads of food and water to gulf regions, as well as experienced staff members. Of the 50-member Food Lifeline staff, four members have requested to travel, and Nageotte expects other staff members will also travel to hurricane-stricken areas.

“We will be feeding hurricane victims for as long as they need help,” Nageotte said. “We expect weeks and months, not days.”

Phones are “ringing off the hooks,” she said, and many community members have made generous donations. Food donors in the food industry have also contacted Food Lifeline with donations of food and water.

To make a financial contribution, residents can go online at www.food lifeline.org, call 206-545-6600 or mail checks to 1702 NE. 150th St, Shoreline, Wash., 98155.

• Seattle-based World Concern is providing medical assistance and supplies, infant formula and emergency kits with bandages and personal care items to victims of the disaster. These items are being distributed in partnership with disaster response teams on the ground.

People can donate by visiting World Concern’s Web site at www.worldconcern.org, or by calling 1-800-755-5022, ext. 0.

Volunteers going

At least four area residents are among the thousands of Red Cross and emergency response volunteers that made their way to the disaster area on Aug. 30 and 31, according to the Emergency Services Coordinating Agency in Brier.

Don Eager, a retired Edmonds man, drove an emergency response vehicle from the County’s Emergency Services Coordinating Agency to the area.

Bill Westlake of Mountlake Terrace, Pat LaJambe of Edmonds and John Clark of Shoreline flew to Houston by Aug. 31 to help with the relief. In Houston, they received their work assignments from the Red Cross and were expected to be sent to Louisiana.

More South Snohomish County volunteers will join the relief effort in the months to come to relieve exhausted colleagues. Two Mountlake Terrace women, Rita Duncan and Jamie Gravelle, an emergency coordinator at Emergency Services Coordinating Agency in Brier, are preparing to go in October and help for several weeks. Gravelle is a Mountlake Terrace City Councilwoman.

“It was just really amazing,” Gravelle said. “You have this group of people from all over the country coming in together into a place that has been pretty well knocked off its feet.”

All of the volunteers have completed Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) classes and Red Cross courses to cope with this kind of disaster. They know how to give first aid, evacuate others safely and help relief workers.

For the volunteers, their top priority will be “mass care” — providing water, food, shelter and medical care to hundreds of thousands of survivors, Gravelle said. They also are setting up communication facilities, like telephone and Internet services. There is also the challenge for resettling survivors who can’t go back to their homes.

“That is the priority right now,” Gravelle said. “After that, you try to look at what else you can do. Then you start looking at how you can start pulling it back together and get life back to normal. That is going to vary from place to place.”

Residents and volunteers also have the task of clearing the debris and making their neighborhoods livable again. They will have quite a mess to clean up for years to come, Gravelle said.

“If they (volunteers) are in an area where people are not being evacuated out of it, they (the volunteers) will be providing cleaning materials. The things they need to get their house livable again: bleach, brooms, mops, gloves. The debris is going to be a huge mess in and of itself.”

Many structures, however, will have to be torn down even if they are still standing, said Lyn Gross, the South Snohomish County emergency services director. Many buildings sustained damage from winds, flood water or fires. Toxic molds, a health hazard, can infest the buildings.

“A lot of those structures will never be habitable ever again,” Gross said. “It is going to be a huge health hazard. It is similar to what we saw in Sri Lanka and India when the tsunami went through there. The conditions are very much the same.”

Red Cross

Snohomish County Red Cross has more than 200 volunteers that will donate their time locally and assist Southeastern Americans who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, said Chuck Morrison, the executive director of the chapter.

The county has 16 volunteers that will spend at least three weeks assisting victims who have lost everything, he said. It is still not safe for volunteers to go there because there is no way for them to get in and around the infected area.

“There are three things people can do: donate time, donate blood or donate money,” Morrison said.

Red Cross has opened more than 300 shelters and will provide aid to more than 100,000 people, he said. Red Cross volunteers who are on scene will provide health care, food, nurses and case workers.

Morrison said they expect to have hundreds of volunteers on sight in the next month. Case workers will be there for six months or more to help families find homes and get their lives established again.

Nationally, Red Cross wants to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.

“There is nothing but absolute and udder chaos down in the Southeast,” Morrison said.

Morrison said Red Cross is still looking for volunteers who will be trained and sent to assist on the Gulf Coast for two to three weeks.

“There is no question that this is one of the greatest natural events that this country has seen,” Morrison said.

Five registered nurses and one unit secretary from Stevens Hospital will join the Red Cross effort to help hurricane victims. Stevens will pay the nurses their normal base pay while they are away, according to a hospital spokesman.

The nurses are Kelly Buchanan, Teresa Judd, Lauri Maier, Joleen Peck and Amanda Wiggins. Andrea Hernandez of the Wound Healing Institute also volunteered.

Northwest Hospital has one nurse traveling to the Gulf Coast to assist victims as part of the Northwest Medical Team, said media coordinator Richelle Kerns. The nurse will be traveling to Biloxi, Miss., and will stay for about two weeks.

“We could have additional employees express interest,” Kerns said.

‘Freelancers’

Emergency services director director Lyn Gross cautioned against South Snohomish County residents traveling south to volunteer or deliver donations. While their intentions are good, “freelance volunteers” from distant cities and towns can distract relief workers from the job at hand or charge ahead into disaster areas, endangering themselves and others.

“We don’t want to create more victims,” Gross said. “You don’t send a lot of people into a collapsed building.

“It is a real headache for people who are trying to coordinate things when people show up and try to freelance,” Gross said. “Neighbor helping neighbor is one thing. But by going into an area that you are not familiar with, you are putting yourself in danger as well as those around you.

“The intent comes right from the heart, but it does not help if they become victims themselves.”

Instead, she encourages residents to contact their local Red Cross or emergency preparedness organization about volunteering so that emergency services leaders can give volunteers specific assignments.

Gross also cautioned against sending donations of goods unless emergency response groups like the Red Cross specifically ask for them. Items burden relief workers who have to sort through the donations, Gross said. Monetary donations are preferred.

“People give things that are not useful,” Gross said.