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Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

Hurricane Refugees Arrive In Athens

Labor Day Weekend, 2005

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Local Hams Assist County in the Arrival, Treatment

and Disbursement of 1192 Weary Katrina Evacuees.

On Saturday, September 4th, Rick Smith (AA5TI), Paul Gatewood (N5FY) and I were at the AARC repeater site (K5EPH, Athens, Texas, 147.220+136.5) installing the new sub-tone encode/decode chip in the backup repeater. (The main repeater had a bad RF power transistor at the time.) We planned to have the repeater off the air for a few minutes during this process.

Just after noon Alice Smith (N5WBH) drove to the repeater site with urgent news that our ARES group was being activated to support the arrival of hundreds of refugees In Athens. The Tyler and Longview area shelters were full, and refugees would next be sent to Athens. They would begin arriving at the fair grounds within a couple of hours. We had only minutes to finish our work and get the repeater back on the air. [The use of "refugees" herein means hurricane/flood/disaster refugees, not foreign/political/war refugees. -- Ed.]

Everybody sprung into action. While some of us worked to get the communications trailer deployed at the fair grounds, Alice got on the phone and tried to call as many club members as she could reach. Members were urged to bring their go-packs and meet at the Henderson County fair grounds.

In addition to the communications trailer, two portable radios were set up in an office there, and the rest of us used handheld radios on foot. In all, about 30 radio operators participated in this event. Some drove in from surrounding counties to help.

Our main mission was to watch the flow of people and busses in and out of the rodeo grounds, and report information to the Henderson County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) downtown. This would give the mission organizers a real-time picture of how things were going. Hams accompanied each outgoing bus carrying refugees to six area shelters -- four churches, a recreation center, and a youth camp.

While we were preparing to handle the communications, doctors and nurses were converging at a building on the rodeo grounds to handle the medical needs. Other volunteers from churches were bringing food and clothing to an aid area inside the rodeo arena. All of these people just stopped what they were doing on the holiday weekend and came to help. Even some prisoners from the local jail were brought in to work setting up tables and chairs and moving pallets of water and ice. (They can be seen in the orange and white stripes.)

The plan was for refugees to arrive by charter busses, enter the rodeo arena for processing, then go by school busses to area shelters. Before we knew it, five large charter busses pulled up. That’s when the whole event began to run like a finely oiled machine as if orchestrated by some unseen guiding force. Good planning and practice, along with much prayer, paid off during this real-life emergency. Every government and volunteer group performed their duties flawlessly.

One by one, bedraggled people began to get off the busses. As they did, church volunteers met them with a smile and a warm greeting. The volunteers held babies while exhausted mothers breathed a sigh of relief at finally reaching their destination after almost a whole day on the bus. They carried bags for the people—bags that contained all that was left of so many people’s lives. The compassion flowed freely as church volunteers went the extra mile to comfort the refugees. Even area church youth groups were there serving the refugees.

The refugees were people of all ages. Some were very old. Some were just babies. Some told of being stranded on top of house or bridges for three days. Others went to the New Orleans convention center to seek refuge, only to find it twice the hell they had tried to escape. Fortunately, they would all get showers and comfortable cots soon. I regret that I had little time to spend hearing their stories since I was very busy.

Those with serious medical needs stayed on the charter busses, and those busses then drove a couple of hundred yards ahead to the senior citizen’s building where hospital staffers had set up a temporary field clinic, sort of like a “MASH unit.”

If refugees needed more advanced treatment, they were taken on to the hospital in Athens by ambulance of van. However, this field hospital did such a great job of meeting the medical needs of the over a thousand refugees that only about ten patients had to be admitted overnight.

The hospital had declared a “mass casualty emergency” and called in all available personnel in anticipation of a huge influx of sick and wounded. But few actually arrived because so many were effectively treated in the field. The hospital also had a 2-meter Ham radio station on the air to communicate with the other ETMC hospitals in Tyler and surrounding areas.

As the healthy refugees filed through security checks and into the rodeo arena, they first came to tables where they could sit down and have some food and drinks. There were probably as many church volunteers as there were refugees. No refugee wanted for anything.

Nurses also had tables set up to provide basic medical checks for anybody in need. If any person needed their prescriptions, those people were seated in a special section of the arena stands while other nurses went to local pharmacies to fill those prescriptions. Those medicines were later delivered to a church (Eastern Hills Church of Christ) where all refugees with special medical needs were sent by bus.

There was also a baby changing table where refugees were served and sent away with a supply of diapers and wipes for the coming days.

After an hour or so at the rodeo arena, the refugees then boarded school busses for various church locations where they were served real meals and had the opportunity to shower and stay the night in the churches’ recreation centers. Churches without rec centers banded together to cook food.

As these school busses left the fair grounds, a ham rode aboard each bus to keep the EOC constantly updated of progress. As the refugees arrived at the area churches, many members were there to greet them. I have one picture of church members approaching a bus to welcome their new friends.

The first convoy of school busses delivered refugees to the Christian Youth Foundation camp, which is adjacent to the fair grounds. Through the rest of the day other school busses took refugees to the First Baptist Church, First Methodist Church, Cain Center, Calvary Baptist Church (in Brownsboro) and the Eastern Hills Church of Christ.

Within about three hours, the first bunch of refugees had all been served and transported to area shelters. Then four more charter busses arrived carrying additional refugees, and the process started all over again.

After about 12 hours of work, a total of 1,192 refugees had been processed. At that point, Athens was declared to be “at capacity.”

Some 30 Ham radio operators worked the event. Nine charter busses of refugees had arrived. They were dispersed to six different churches and community centers. About 10 were admitted to the Athens hospital overnight.

All in all, I was very proud of how my home town and the local Amateur Radio community responded.

As we were winding down for the day, Dave Pulley (W5DLP) was driving back home and mentioned on the radio that he had a great time, although it was lots of work. As for why it was such a blessing to be involved in, he summed it up by saying, “I saw Jesus today.”

As did we all.

73,

James Alderman, KF5WT

WHAT WENT RIGHT

We were able to mobilize a good number of ham operators on short notice, even on a holiday weekend. Nobody complained and everybody worked together very well.
We were able to deploy the communications trailer on short notice.
After many practice drills, our emergency net went very smoothly.

HOW WE COULD IMPROVE:

Continue to improve our go-packs to make them more versatile. (Mine needs to be built into a camel pack, complete with auxiliary batteries for extended HT operation, and a pack-mounted antenna.)
Acquire a supply of short (18-inch tall) mag mount antennas with BNC and SMA adapters for use with any talkie. These would have greatly improved our communications aboard the busses.
Have a supply of water and snack items either aboard the communication trailer or in some easily accessible place. We never know when we’ll have to be out for many hours.
We need ARES badges to indicate that we are “official.”
We need to have digital cameras with us to document activities. I was the only one there with a camera, and we were all so spread out that I only got pictures of a small percentage of our total activities.
Many of the local emergency officials at the fair grounds were using common cell phones to communicate. Apparently the cell sites continued to operate without busying out. However, depending on cell sites for emergency communications is problematic. Perhaps Amateur Radio should handle more of this communication which was being done over cell phones.

Photos

1 – James and Paul install the new
sub-tone chip in the repeater.

2 – Close-up of the repeater’s receiver with
the green sub-tone chip wired in.

3 – This is the room where we set up two portable radios for communications
around the fairgrounds, and to the EOC near downtown Athens.

4 – Alice (N5WBH) operating net control.

5 & 6 – Hams rode aboard each school bus taking refugees to area shelters.

7 to 12 – Charter busses arrive with refugees.

13 & 14 – Sheriff’s deputies check luggage for
weapons and dangerous articles.

15 – Upon entering the rodeo arena, refugees had
a chance to get some snacks and drinks.

16 & 17 – Refugees with medical needs, such as diabetes or
hypertension, were attended by nurses at the medical tables.
If they needed prescriptions, those meds were delivered
to them once they reached their shelters.

18 – Babies were serviced at the diaper changing station.
Mothers also obtained spare diapers and wipes to take with them.

19 – Among the dozens of local volunteers who assisted were
youth group members from a Gun Barrel City church.

20 – Among the volunteers who helped out was
this man who held a baby girl while her mother
enjoyed some refreshments.

21 & 22 – School busses were used to take refugees to area shelters.
A ham operator rode aboard each bus and reported progress to the EOC.

23 – The first convoy of school busses delivered refugees
to the Christian Youth Foundation.

24 & 25 – As refugees with special medical needs (diabetics, for example)
were taken by school bus to the Eastern Hills Church of Christ, the refugees
stepping off the bus were greeted warmly by church members.

26 – At about midnight, the last bus
of refugees left the fair grounds.

Photos

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