November 5, 2005

FEMA Experience in Texas, September 2005

By Ann Seltzer

Submitted photos

I was invited by FEMA to act as a Public Information Officer (PIO) in a volunteer capacity. PIOs are responsible for “getting the word out” via the media and community about the assistance available to people from areas that have been declared Federal Disasters.

I think of my trip in three parts: Galveston assisting the Hurricane Katrina evacuees; evacuation from Galveston; and Beaumont assisting Hurricane Rita evacuees.

In Galveston I met with the chamber of commerce, representatives from the Red Cross, the local newspaper, the public relations staff of the local government and various volunteer agencies such as Catholic Charities to update them on FEMA presence in Galveston and the assistance that FEMA offered to Katrina evacuees. By the time I arrived in Galveston the Red Cross shelter had been closed. Though it was just two weeks since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the community had quickly assisted these evacuees in finding temporary housing. However, we did hear through the grapevine of “rogue” shelters where evacuees were located. For example, a church located in an adjacent town was housing 38 members of an extended family. I went to visit this family and discovered that they had not yet registered with FEMA and were not aware of the assistance they could receive. FEMA had established a Disaster Recovery Center in Galveston where Katrina evacuees could register with FEMA and speak directly to a FEMA representative about their needs.

I worked directly with “Miss Leona,” an elderly woman who had lost her home in New Orleans. She refused to register with FEMA because she was convinced that she would have to pay back the grant money and felt she was too old to have that burden. I could not convince her otherwise. A young mother from New Orleans was having a difficulty renting an apartment in Texas because the background checks revealed that she was on parole. A family of four who returned to New Orleans and then left again because the smell was so overpowering they did not want their children in that environment.

It was an enlightening few days and working directly with evacuees served as a reminder that these people are all individuals with individual stories and needs.

After a few days in Galveston the mayor and council ordered a mandatory evacuation of the island in preparation for Hurricane Rita which at the time was expected to make landfall at Galveston. The morning of the evacuation, hundreds of Katrina evacuees as well as Galveston residents gathered in the community center parking lot to board school buses destined for predetermined shelters in other parts of Texas. The scene was particularly devastating for the Katrina evacuees who were just starting to get a handle on their lives.

I did numerous interviews both on and off camera with national media like CNN and Fox as well as local affiliates in Houston and print media in both English and Spanish. Their primary interest was the effect this evacuation was having on Katrina evacuees and FEMA’s preparedness to offer rapid assistance to people and areas that could potentially be affected by Hurricane Rita.

Our FEMA group left Galveston at noon on Wednesday and arrived in Dallas, 300 miles away at noon on Thursday. We found ourselves stuck in the gridlock of I-45. The temperature was over 100 degrees and we had turned off the air-conditioning to conserve gas. Families and cars were stranded on the median and shoulders of the freeway; pets, babies, the elderly all desperate for water were trapped and unable to move. Our group finally left the freeway four hours later and 30 miles into the trip. We took back county roads and worked our way west and eventually north to Dallas. We slept in our cars and filled our gas tanks anytime we came across a station with fuel.

While in Dallas FEMA asked me to visit the Federal Distribution Center in Fort Worth and get some media coverage about the facility. The center encompasses more than 350 acres with large warehouses. It is here that FEMA collects immediate assistance commodities from across the county including water, ice, meals ready to eat, diapers, formula and more. From these warehouses goods are sent to forward staging areas out of harm’s way but near the area of likely devastation so that goods can be trucked in immediately following the storm. I called the numerous news stations in Dallas and Fort Worth and invited them to do a story on the facility. This was the first time that the media had been permitted onto the site and the first time a news story had been done about it. The primary message that I was giving to the media was that FEMA is poised, prepared and ready to assist once a federal disaster has been declared.

After Rita hit the coast of Texas and Louisiana, I was sent to Beaumont, Texas where the eye of the hurricane struck. I drove nine hours on back roads through the numerous counties that had been affected by the storm. At each county line, I encountered a roadblock and was escorted through by state troopers. Residents were not allowed back to their communities and those residents that had not evacuated were “stuck” without power and fuel.

Again the heat was over 100 degrees — plus humidity — and the greatest need was water and ice. More than 250,000 homes and businesses were without power; trees were uprooted and laying across roads. Gas stations did not have gas and people had no way to get cool.

Along the way, I saw electric power crews and trucks from neighboring states who were assisting the local power company with downed lines. Without power locals did not have access to news. The lifeline for these people was a lone radio station broadcasting out of Beamont. The station had a powerful signal and was operating 24 hours a day using a generator. People listened to this station, as did I, on car radios or battery operated radios and it was their only source of information.

I arrived at the Ford Arena outside Beaumont which has been established as the command post for all the various agencies and relief organizations. Hundreds of National Guardsmen, mobile medical teams, Red Cross and Salvation Army workers and FEMA had mobilized at the Ford Arena to assist those affected by Rita. Again, I was besieged by local, national and international media. Their interest in regards to FEMA was what was being done immediately to assist people in the affected area.

Local officials had predetermined points of distribution in their communities. Hundreds of FEMA trucks were sent to these locations where national guardsmen distributed water, ice, food. People started receiving these items within 48 to 56 hours after the storm had hit.

The lone radio station remained the only source of information for people. I was a guest on the radio station everyday and answered calls from people about how they could get assistance from FEMA. It was a very rewarding experience and I believe very beneficial to the listeners. My two primary messages were: do not listen to what anyone tells you about FEMA assistance. (Urban legend and gossip was already running rampant with stories ranging from FEMA will reimburse you for a chain saw to a dining room table) and my second message that people must register with FEMA before FEMA could help the and that they could register by phone or online. However, given the widespread power outage, many people did not have access to a telephone or a computer. FEMA quickly set up mobile units where people could register in person with a FEMA representative. I was known in the area and on the radio as “the FEMA lady” and it was sometimes startling to hear reference to me in that context.

There were three FEMA PIOs assigned to the area and as my departure date approached they sent another two days before I left so that she could “get up to speed” in my footsteps. I was the only “volunteer” FEMA PIO, the others worked for FEMA and had years of experience after working numerous disasters.

It was a privilege to work with them. They were very complimentary about my work, and I was impressed by their compassion and commitment to their mission of serving people. I am grateful to the City of Ashland for allowing me to serve and know that my experience in Texas working with emergency management will be beneficial to our community should we have the unfortunate occasion to experience a natural or manmade disaster.

Ann Seltzer is a management analyst for the City of Ashland. She volunteered to be a spokesperson for FEMA in Texas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and as Hurricane Rita hit south Texas in September.