Working Locally, Assisting Recovery
Release Date: October 27, 2005
Release Number: 1603-119
» More Information on Louisiana Hurricane Katrina
» More Information on Louisiana Hurricane Rita
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Hundreds of Louisiana residents, who are themselves disaster victims, are helping their fellow citizens in the recovery from the recent hurricanes. These residents are assisting their neighbors and aiding the recovery even as they are recovering themselves.
"Hiring local residents to help with ongoing hurricane-recovery efforts is a win-win situation," said Vice Admiral Thad Allen, principal federal official and federal coordinating officer for the hurricane recovery effort. "Not only does FEMA hire a skilled workforce, but those who may have otherwise been left jobless get back to work while contributing to the long-term recovery of the local economy."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is hiring Louisiana residents to staff many of its activities in the state. Priority is given to displaced hurricane victims and to other parish residents. Thus far, FEMA has hired and trained more than 775 Louisiana residents to work at the federal offices in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Sulpher, and New Orleans, and to staff the numerous community-based Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) throughout the state.
For example, recent new hires from New Orleans consisted of applicants from all walks of life: former federal employees, convenience store workers, ex-CEOs of small companies, and college students. All were disaster victims and were unemployed at the time.
FEMA's goal is to keep the jobs local. Hiring local talent keeps citizens in their home state while putting money back in the local economy. Of the Louisiana residents hired for disaster recovery jobs, more than 400 have filled positions previously held by FEMA and other federal agency workers. The basic qualifications for a job with FEMA are having good people skills, being flexible and having a working knowledge of computers.
Many of the positions these new FEMA workers fill are those jobs in direct contact with other displaced residents and hurricane victims. These new workers bring an intimate understanding of the problems faced by their fellow disaster victims. They join FEMA Disaster Assistance Employees (DAEs) who are from around the country and stay at disaster areas for weeks or months, and sometimes even years. Local hires will supplement the cadre of DAE reservists who comprise the core of FEMA staff. Many local hires decide to become part of the standby pool of DAEs. With the experience they gain in their first recovery assignments, they become available to be dispatched to help citizens in other states recover after disaster strikes.
There are three primary ways to apply for work with FEMA. Applicants may fax resumes to 225-201-0462 or mail them to FEMA, P.O. BOX 5097, Baton Rouge, LA 70802. They may also apply with their local Express Personnel office. Locally, the positions are advertised through newspaper advertisements, radio announcements, flyers and at other DRCs. Express Personnel has a mobile hiring unit to enable hurricane victims without cars to apply in their parishes.
Last Modified: Thursday, 27-Oct-2005 16:43:08