Salvation Army arrives in area to help in recovery
By Timothy Woerner | Enterprise-Journal
Posted: 09/05/08 - 11:58:54 am CDT
Volunteers from Arkansas and Oklahoma are joining local Salvation Army leaders in McComb-based relief efforts following Hurricane Gustav, McComb Capt. Rick Boone said Thursday.
Relief efforts also are taking place in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, with additional pushes from the eastern and western edges of storm damage inward.
“When most people are running away from it, we’re figuring out how to move into it,” Maj. Dan New said.
The Salvation Army’s relief includes four 53-foot tractor-trailer feeding units that contain both food storage and stoves and can serve several thousand people. The massive units take 40 people to operate, including 26 cooks — one person alone covers just the can opener. They also can help facilitate distribution along a chain of outreach efforts that include smaller communities.
More than 50 “canteens” — trucks that contain stoves and can distribute meals on a lesser scale — also are in use.
Four of the canteen units are based in McComb and are concentrated on reaching those in need in Amite, Franklin and Wilkinson counties — part of a coverage area that extends from Walthall County to the Mississippi River.
Three more are expected to arrive by the weekend, New said.
Each unit has a trailer and support vehicle that can carry or retrieve additional supplies to aid in distribution flow.
Workers on the canteens and larger trailers are required to take food service courses, incident command courses, first aid courses and CPR courses and utensils are washed away from the units to prevent contamination.
New added that immediately after a disaster, necessary supplies can include everything from pet food to baby formula to insulin.
“We practice on it, we train on it and we’re constantly trying to find quicker ways to distribute,” New said. “This goes back as far as Camille. ... It’s just a massive system that works. There’s a massive infrastructure that takes place in order to deliver services everywhere.”
Salvation Army officials said needs are particularly great in pockets that have not regained power.“We are using our teams to go out and assess the emergency needs,” Deputy Incident Commander Ernie Hull said. “What we’re seeing so far is minimal structural damage. ... We’re projecting we’ll be here possibly through the weekend.”
Hull said a major need for local officials in coming days will be donations of food and money to replenish supplies. Response to emergencies such as Hurricane Gustav often place a strain on available resources, Hull said.
“Capt. Boone here from McComb has called this unit in,” Hull said, referencing the Arkansas and Oklahoma unit’s food distribution and aid.
“He (Capt. Boone) gave everything he had out. You can’t give what you don’t have. His cupboard and his resources are gone.”Hull also predicted a spike in needs as evacuees returned home to find damage.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Hull said. “You’re going to have a lot of them getting back out of food and out of gas.”
Boone, meanwhile, praised community cohesiveness in responding to Gustav, saying that Walker’s Chapel Freewill Baptist Church had been gracious in accepting help, and that the McComb School District’s Tiger Activity Complex had housed Salvation Army volunteers visiting from out of state.
“We have tents,” Hull joked. “We came prepared to sleep in the bug-infested outdoors.”
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