Notes From the Scene

Returned from Mississippi

2005-09-20T05:31:00.000-07:00

Dr. Mark Banks returned on September 16

Hello all-

I returned from Mississippi late last night, tired but satisfied about my contribution. The images in the media don't begin to help understand the magnitude of destruction, loss, and desperation in an enormous swath throughout the gulf region. There will be an ongoing need for your support and compassion for much time to come. Progress is made every day, but there is so much to be done.

To make the point, when I arrived, the area seemed like a fourth world country, and when I left, it felt more like a third world country, albeit one in an active war zone.

It was strange yesterday to leave Gulfport and fly to Atlanta, where normal life was in full swing at the airport. Open restaurants, upright trees, intact buildings, drinkable water, flush toilets, and no military presence were immediate signs that I had left the affected area.

Thank you for your kind words and support offered to Iris and I while I was away. Please continue to support the victims of the hurricane in any way you can. They truly need and appreciate it.

Mark

Steve Coming Home

2005-09-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

Steve Pernicka shared his thoughts by phone on Sept 12 from ERV 1099 on the road in Lafayette, Louisiana

I am coming home! Hard to believe that we left Burlington 17 days ago in the ERV!!

You know we are in for the long run when my first tour has ended and they are talking about having me sign up for a second tour in a couple of months. I got into a real routine as a kitchen supervisor....I never want to see another pizza or biscuit! People have been in the shelter here for a while now and folks are getting restless.

I was glad to take a new assignment a couple of days ago and it is good to out on the ERV and back out into the community. We have been taking hot food to small self created evacuee communities in local churches and buildings in small towns on the outskirts of Lafayette. These folks chose not to be in the big shelter and are staying in some tough conditions but they deserve a good hot meal and some support and it feels good to give it to them.

I fly out from Louisiana first thing in the morning to Houston, and then it is non-stop back to BVT!

News from Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian and Waveland

2005-09-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

Transmitted by telephone 9/9 by Dr. Mark Banks

Did outreach work in some of the hardest hit areas - Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian and Waveland over the past couple of days. There continue to be amazing sites everywhere you look…. MASH medical facilities and surgery being performed essentially in parking lots….houses and cars that were in the middle of roads have been pushed out of the way into ditches…..there are several checkpoints which adds to the feeling being in a war zone.

Spending about half of the time at the shelter, and the rest of the time doing outreach. We have been transferred to barracks at an air force base. Good accommodations, my own room, bathroom and a laundry!

Stores are beginning to open although everything closes at 5 and there is a curfew at 7. There are miles of military trucks on the roads at any given time, but there are no traffic lights, so every intersection is a four way stop, with lots of traffic

Update to a New Perspective

2005-09-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

As transmitted by telephone 9/7

I am assigned to a shelter at a Baptist church school that currently houses 75 refugees but will eventually house 300 - 400. Chinook helicopters are landing on the football field and bringing in all of their supplies at this point. The power is back on, so there is electricity and air conditioning. The people from the church have been great, helping with cooking, laundry, logistics and supplies. Staff are staying in classrooms on cots - about 5 to a small room, more in larger classrooms.

In another shelter, a navy crew comes in from a destroyer and cooks 3 great meals every day.

Common sights: caravans of 50+ police cars, convoys of supply trucks, hundreds of bucket trucks working on power lines and cutting down trees, power boats and canoes hanging from trees. Power crews are working 24 hours a day and every night there are more lights on. Some gas stations and stores are opening, but everyone from the local area that is being served at the shelter is homeless as the water was 30 feet high in their area. It is estimated that 75% of the teachers from this school district are homeless.

Now that shelters are up and running, volunteers are doing more outreach, driving through neighborhoods to check if people need food or medical care. They also brought food to a local fire station where people who are still in their homes come for food and supplies.

There are people who are saying that they are done with hurricanes and plan to move out away as soon as they can, but there are also those who have no interest in leaving.

Mark

Update from Lafayette

2005-09-08T04:35:00.000-07:00

Transmitted by telephone 4.30pm 9/7 by Steve Pernicka

Still in Lafayette, Louisiana and it is really hot; 101 with 98% humidity, I am working and sweating then sweating and working!

Here at the Cajun Dome things are moving into a steady rhythm for the 1,000 people I am working with at the Convention Center. Folks are starting to mellow and it is a fairly positive environment. Pizza Hut just brought in a bunch of trucks and served 100's of Pizzas at lunch time...people loved it. I am working in a supervisory role making sure everyone gets feed, including all the police and city workers who are helping us out at the shelter. In fact we are going to line up all the ERVs on the main street tonight to do a hot dog and bean bake for all the people in the community who have helped us along the way. They have been great!

For all the people who are wondering, I still have the private suite at the Church, nobody seems terribly disturbed by my cot and gear in the big broom closet during the day so I am sleeping great at night. Gotta run, thanks everybody.

Steve

A New Perspective from Biloxi

2005-09-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

Mark Banks is a Vermont doctor who is in Biloxi Mississippi working as a American Red Cross mental health worker

Transmitted by telephone on 9/6

The scene here is one of absolute devastation and is totally unbelievable. At any given time there are over 100 tractor trailers and 50 police cruises in sight and a number of helicopters overhead providing a constant sound track to the scene.

I have had a chance to spend time with survivors and their stories were unimaginable....I met one man who bobbed in the water for over eight hours...I worked with another woman who spent hours trapped in her house with a 4 inch air pocket to support her, with a friend who did not survive at her side. In the midst of all that a bright spot; a woman came into the shelter with an unusual last name and I recognized it and remembered that a man had come in with that same name earlier worried that he could not find his wife....I ran to get the man and the reunion was made!

No one is complaining about the government or anything else at this point, they are just trying to survive.

I left just 48 hours ago and I know a lot of people were wondering about whether to donate money or supplies. DONATE MONEY...donated supplies are often being left behind in a very fluid shelter environment and sometimes there is not even enough room for the supplies at the next shelter.

The Red Cross is everywhere and and great things are getting lost in the chaos, people are very appreciative of our efforts.

Mark

Another Day at the Cajundome

2005-09-06T09:22:00.000-07:00

Transmitted by telephone 9/4 at 1pm

Another day at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana. Last night we spent the night at a local church. You have to be creative in situations like this so I took my cot into a big closet and got a great nights sleep in my private suite!

The numbers keep changing, but we are sheltering about 5,000 people here. There are three major meals a day with two food lines, one across the Dome and the other at the convention center. I got a real kick as I walked around the facility at mid-morning and saw they had opened all the concession stands to make sure everyone, particularly the young people, had snacks.

The scene here is very organized and people are pretty positive. Last night I was up on one of the top floors and I saw they had a major medical facility and an active pharmacy unit as well so there is a lot of good stuff going on all around.

Not sure where we are going next but this has been a pretty good period in the middle of all this madness.

Hope everyone is well

Steve

On the Road to Lafayette, LA

2005-09-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

We are on the road to Lafayette, Louisiana to begin our work at the shelters there. All of us ERV drivers are getting tired but our vehicle, ERV 1099, is holding up well. We stayed in the Baton Rouge Parish last night. I slept on a cot and finally fell asleep about 12:30am and was up again at 5:30am. The folks at the local church have been wonderful. Some of the ladies of the church were kind enough to wash our clothes last night...you have no idea what a difference the little things can make at times like this. Those same wonderful church folks sent us on the road today with box lunches (two great sandwiches, cookies and lots of fruit). Traffic was really heavy in Baton Rouge, but we are getting used to chaos, it has become the normal environment. From the command center to the road ways (it took us 20 minutes to go 3 blocks leaving town), things are changing by the moment.

Hey, we heard about all the things Vermonters are doing back home...the folks need a lot of help down here, and you have no idea what a difference all that stuff is going to make. Glad to hear Shawn got home safe and is able to help his family.

Getting a little tired of driving but feeling good and strong overall.

Steve

In Baton Rouge, LA

2005-09-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

We are on interstate 10 right now in a convoy of EVRs bringing 500 hot meals to the Baton Rouge Parish shelter where over 1,000 people are housed in an American Red Cross shelter. There is a steady stream of military vehicles and ambulances passing us and the highways are being patrolled by military helicopters passing overhead every 10 minutes or so.

We are feeling a little better today. We went southbound on Interstate 10 yesterday to the edge of New Orleans as we delivered hot food from our main kitchen up here to police and military at the staging area on the edge of the city. The scene was very tense and during the ride down we were in a convoy of four ERV's with security escorts. I can only describe some of the things I saw as horrifying...we are seeing some tough stuff but some wonderful things as well.

We are housed in the Baton Rouge shelter and feel safe and secure and are feeling very positive now that we are doing something that is really making a difference. Shawn was called home last night and I am now teamed with a volunteer from another chapter... we all receive the same training so we have not missed a beat.

It is great to hear how the community back home is responding..thanks for everything.

Steve

Headed Toward Gulfport, MS

2005-09-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

Today, Gina Hutchins called in with the following report:

I left Montgomery, Alabama with a caravan of about 25 people today. We're reporting from the road, headed toward Gulfport, Mississippi - we should be there in about 3 and a half hours. We expect conditions to be pretty rough when we arrive - no electricity, water or phone service. But the team is in good spirits and ready to help wherever we're needed. I'll be in touch when I can!

North of New Orleans

2005-09-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

We are about 120 miles north of New Orleans right now on Thursday morning, and I have to admit that we are beginning to grow fairly apprehensive. We are on Interstate 20 in a convoy of American Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles and are seeing a tremendous amount of property damage. We have passed a number of National Guard convoys, and they are loaded with construction equipment and power generators....right now we are carrying bulk water and food supplies.

Last night we stayed at the Red Cross shelter for emergency workers in Little Rock Arkansas and there were so many storm refugees coming in that the local officials had to open up a stadium to shelter and feed them. On the roads things are tense, as we entered Louisiana people were trying to flag us down to get help but we had to keep moving. We have to admit that there is an increasing sense of tension in the area. There is no gas at gas stations - in fact we just saw a fist fight at a local pump over remaining supplies, and food and water are running low.

We know why we are here and we are focused on our mission...thanks to everyone in Vermont for their support.

Shawn and Steve

Arrived in Little Rock, AR

2005-08-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings y'all!

We arrived here in Little Rock about 5:00pm. The last 200 miles were tough - we went through the tail end of the storm and caught heavy rain and strong winds. It was a very long trip.

The first thing we did when we arrived was meet with Red Cross officials to make sure that the emergency response vehicle we drove down was cleared to enter the disaster zone. Once we got the OK it was off to Sams club to get a pallet of water and bulk foods, mainly snack items. We will be deployed with about nine other ERVs to Baton Rouge around 7am. Our main mission is to be "truckers" shuttling bulk supplies to drop stations for delivery into the disaster zone.

We will have photos to share in the near future.

Thank every one for your continued support - we will make our Vermonters proud!

On the Road in Lebanon, TN

2005-08-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Each day, as communications allow, volunteers from the Northern Vermont Chapter of the American Red Cross will share their experiences and thoughts. Today Shawn Conley and Steve Pernicka talked to us from Lebanon, Tennessee en route to the affected areas.

We have been on the road for over thirty hours now and we hope to get to the initial Red Cross staging area in Little Rock, Arkansas by 3pm. We just talked to the coordinators of the relief effort and they told us that if we get there by 3pm they are going to load us up with food and supplies and send us directly to Louisiana.

We are a little concerned about travel as the storm is passing over us in Tennessee right now. Winds are gusting to 45mph and some trees are down so we may not make it across prior to 3pm. If we pull in late they tell us that they will shelter us overnight and select our assignment at daybreak tomorrow.

We are feeling good and are ready to go, even after all this travel. Last night when we finally got off the highway we had a chance to watch the television reports and we came to really understand the scope of this disaster. We are both apprehensive and energized as we head out today.

Steve & Shawn