Wednesday, September 08, 2004

I got a call Monday morning asking me to participate in something the article below describes well:

FEMA seeks help for hurricane recovery (Sep 3, 2004) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is urgently seeking "at least a few hundred additional personnel" in the Atlanta, Georgia, area or in the southeastern US to help with a large-scale community relations task shortly after Hurricane Frances makes landfall. Individuals will be paid for their services and do not have to be Amateur Radio licensees. The mission is to distribute vitally important public information literature including urging people in the disaster area to apply to FEMA for help. These are temporary paid FEMA Reservist positions for periods of two weeks minimum. Those responding must be physically able to work in a disaster area without refrigeration for medications and have the ability to work in the outdoors for at least 12 hours a day under high temperature/high humidity conditions. FEMA will provide transportation from the Atlanta area to various parts of the disaster-affected area. For further information on how to respond, call the Community Relations Coordination Hotline, toll-free, 888 422-4965. The US Department of Homeland Security, of which FEMA is a part, this week has been positioning personnel and supplies in areas expected to be affected by Hurricane Frances to ensure readiness to provide immediate emergency assistance when the storm makes landfall. FEMA also is coordinating activities of other federal departments and with state agencies to prepare for a possible rapid response to the storm.--Ben Curran, FEMA Recovery Division, from www.arrl.org

By the time I was notified on the 6th, the total request for FEMA operatives had ballooned to 1000, possibly 2000. Right now I am waiting for the go ahead to travel to the staging area in Atlanta, Georgia. Wild, wacky stuff.

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