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Beaumont, Texas - National service disaster responders swung into action to assist recovery efforts after Hurricane Ike’s devastating romp through Texas late last week. With AmeriCorps members pre-positioned to deploy, response has been fast and effective.
Currently, 31 AmeriCorps NCCC teams totaling more than 250 members are serving in Texas and Louisiana in response to Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Hundreds of other AmeriCorps and Senior Corps volunteers are also on the job, providing food and shelter to evacuees, assessing and clearing damage, and managing donations and call centers.
The cost of Ike’s damage has been estimated at as much as $12 billion, with 57 storm-related fatalities. Hundreds of thousands fled the storm’s rage. Days after Ike made landfall, 37,000 people were still in shelters as communities and utility companies scrambled to restore power and ensure safe drinking water.
In Beaumont, Texas, NCCC Team Leader Ben Martin and his seven-member team are assisting a group of Baptists from Kentucky and Texas and the American Red Cross in feeding local residents. Emergency response vehicles go out twice a day to provide hot meals to those in need, handing out about 4,000 meals each day. The NCCC members have been unloading trucks and preparing meals from the moment they arrived in Beaumont. Martin said it took about 24 hours for the project sponsors to realize the capabilities of the NCCC members. “They know now if they need something done, look for a gray shirt,” he said.
Other NCCC teams are stationed across the interior and coastal areas of Texas including Abilene, Dallas Galveston, Kountze, League City, Lufkin, Silsbee, and Tyler, where they perform a variety of assignments including feeding operations, answering phones at the state’s 211 disaster call center, bulk distribution, feeding and mass care, and management of two special medical needs shelters.
“One of the things we did that really paid off was to pre-position NCCC teams in Mississippi and Texas, allowing those teams to immediately support mass care and sheltering needs hours after the storm passed through,” said Colleen Clay, Director of the Office of Emergency Management at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
In addition to the NCCC teams, VISTA members and Senior Corps volunteers are responding throughout Texas and Louisiana. The Corporation is working with FEMA to establish longer mission assignments to bring in AmeriCorps members from other areas, such as youth and conservation corps teams from around the country that are specially trained in disaster relief.
Current disaster response deployments include the Hoopa Tribal Civilian Community Corps, which is in Lafayette, La. working on assessment and debris removal and supporting the United Way Food Bank; the Washington Conservation Corps, which has teams supporting shelter operations in Baton Rouge and staffing a call center in Shreveport; Learn and Serve volunteers at San Antonio College recruiting volunteers and conducting a supply drive for American Red Cross and Salvation Army; and 32 RSVP volunteers in Texarkana, Texas, who are preparing food and supporting evacuees.
The Corporation and its partners are also playing a key coordination and infrastructure roles. The federal agency has staff assigned to the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA headquarters, and the state Joint Field Offices in Baton Rouge and Austin. The state service commission in Texas, known as the One Star Foundation, is the lead agency for managing donations to affected areas.
The Corporation for National and Community Service improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. Each year the Corporation engages more than four million Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to meet local needs through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs. For more information, visit http://www.nationalservice.gov.
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