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Last Updated:
Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:39 AM
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News Release
| Volunteer Stories: Working for FEMA |
Date:
Contact: Aux. Wayne Spivak |
Atlanta, GA: Today, sitting in a classroom located in Atlanta, Georgia are approximately 150 United States Coast Guard Auxiliarists. These men and women are undergoing training by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to become Community Relations Team members under the Disaster Assistance Employee program.
According to FEMA, "Community Relations is a bridge between the affected community's needs in a disaster and the help that partnership organizations led by the State/FEMA can provide."
Many of these new FEMA employees were called last Thursday or Friday and told to report on Sunday. They come from New York and Connecticut, Alaska and Nevada, in fact they come from almost every state.
These Auxiliarists are here in Atlanta, responding to the request made by FEMA to the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary for assistance with Hurricane Katrina and now Rita.
They've taken leaves (paid and unpaid) from their jobs. They've left their families, all to assist those who are in need.
In Atlanta they will undergo two days of training. The first day, after completing the appropriate paperwork, they received FEMA identification, cell phones, charge cards, and inoculations for diseases.
They then began the classroom portion of the day. They discussed the local population, the social and cultural aspects of the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas Gulf regions. Essentially a 'who they are', what you can expect, and what you will be doing overview.
What will they be doing? These men and women will be going from house to house engaging the victims of the Hurricane and explaining what programs are available.
Additional training is also provided to those who don't have CPR and first aid. In addition, FEMA will provide all participants with Incident Command Systems (ICS), if they have never had this type of training.
A full one-third of the participants in this group have no disaster background similar to this type of disaster (large natural disasters, only local emergencies). They also have never worked with FEMA. Another third have never head any type of disaster training or inter-action.
The last third of this group have had disaster experience, be it last year with the Florida Hurricanes or elsewhere.
A truly diverse group of people assembled in Atlanta, Georgia on a Tuesday. This group happens to be members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is composed of uniformed, non-military volunteer's who assist the Coast Guard in all of its varied missions, except for military and direct law enforcement. These men and women can be found on the nation's waterways, in the air, in classrooms and on the dock, performing Maritime Domain Awareness patrols, safety patrols, vessel safety checks and public education. The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary was founded in 1939 by an Act of Congress as the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve and re-designated as the Auxiliary in 1941. Its 30,000 members donate millions of hours annually in support of Coast Guard missions. For more information on the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, visit us at www.cgaux.org. ### |
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