MEET THE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION RESPONSE VEHICLE

From Kevin McCoy, Emergency Services Volunteer

Most of the time American Red Cross of Central Texas volunteers focus on helping our own community respond to disasters.  Many of us are also in the Disaster Services Human Resource system, or DSHR.  The DSHR system records the capabilities of volunteers across the nation so that the American Red Cross can scale up nationwide to handle larger emergencies such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. 

     

Some of these disasters can be so devastating that power and phones are knocked out.  Establishing headquarters close to the disaster site has a lot of advantages, but this can only be done if communication and computing resources can be delivered.  One resource that helps ensure that crucial communication and other technology lines remain open and functioning during a disaster is the Emergency Communications Response Vehicle. 

Recently I traveled to the Greater Houston Area Chapter with fellow Volunteers Fred and Marcia Marks to learn to use and deploy the Emergency Communications Response Vehicle.  This could be locally for Central Texas chapter needs, or in a National Level Disaster.  

To overcome the effects of a disaster, the vehicle has its own power source, two satellite dishes, numerous radios, wired and wireless routers, laptops, Internet telephones, satellite phones, and patch equipment to join radio systems into networks.

 Marcia and Fred Marks with the ECRV

          

I got to take the class with good friends Fred and Marcia Marks who are also in the Austin Area.  I have worked together with them responding to  Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Ike, and on the ARC of Central Texas Mass Care Action Team or MCAT.  MCATs respond to Shelter, Feeding, and Distribution needs caused mostly by weather and fire based emergencies.

 The ECRV mast fully extended

The ECRV satellite dish

RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS ON THE SCENE AT ECHELON PLANE CRASH

From Kevin & Sandy McCoy, Disaster Volunteers

February 18 & 19, 2010 – Echelon Plane Crash and Fire

Today Sandy and I received a ping from Fred and Marcia Marks that there was an airplane that had flown into a building on Research Boulevard.  It made the national news and left the city stunned.

The on-call Mass Care Action Team - Bill Saul, Derek Clarkson, Marcia and Fred Marks arrived on scene with the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) and a pickup at 12:45 PM. We began serving snacks and water to all of the first responders. In addition to Fire, Police and EMS, federal agencies such as the FBI and NTSB were there as well as Travis County Emergency Services.

Incident Command ordered 100 pizzas which were delivered at about 3:30pm and distributed out of the ERV. Bill and Derek used the pickup to gather feeding materials that we found that we needed which were donated by a local Walgreens. In addition, Bill and Jose visited Sam's, Krispy Kreme and Plucker's to pick up dinner and coffee for this evening.  

Incident Command ordered Jason's Deli sandwich boxes which were delivered at 6:30 and distributed out of the ERV.

Kevin and Sandy McCoy and Tim Garland relieved us at 7 PM and will cover things tonight. 

 Tim Garland serves Pizza from the ERV

Until about midnight, Firefighters were still crawling through the building in search of a missing person (IRS employee Mr. Vernon Hunter, 68, later found deceased). The Firefighters were kind enough to stop by and say thanks as they left the scene.

Sandy and Tim get a Hot Wings delivery ready to serve.

It's after midnight and we are still getting traffic from responders (Fire, APD, AFD, FBI) at this time. 

Fred and Marcia should be back to relieve us at 7AM, while another team works to get breakfast ready.

Stay Safe,

Kevin & Sandy

The American Red Cross of Central Texas would like to thank all our volunteers who worked this disaster for their dedication.  We would also like to thank the following restaurants for their donations of food and beverages for First Responders, allowing them to work around the clock securing the scene:

Pluckers Wing Bar

Schlotzsky's

Thundercloud Subs

Krispy Kreme

Starbucks

Taco Cabana

Whataburger 

Walgreens

BEHIND THE SCENES AT RED CROSS

From Kevin and Sandy McCoy, Volunteers

In these journals I have written about how we work on fires, hurricanes, and other events. But I thought I would take some time and give a peek behind the scenes on getting ready. and making sure that the Red Cross is ready to respond in disasters. That takes a lot of education and preparation.

This week we helped in two ways. First, we took a course at the Austin EOC to get certified and badged so that we can work at the EOC when an event occurs. Second we helped to Inventory the National Assets stored to help out in disasters across the country.

National Inventory
Sandy and I worked on a team of volunteers that came in from all over the country to help out in doing and inventory at one of the few National Warehouses. This one happens to be in our home town of Austin, and is located close to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The Warehouse is called the Disaster Services Maintenance Center. Here are a couple of Red Cross Workers (Randall Rieffel & Gary Thompson) in process of inventorying radios.

This entire deployable inventory is stored in Pelican Cases. These are water tight cases that can survive flood and other severe conditions. That protects the assets that are sent in harms way, and make sure it is usable for the next disaster.

We had a production line to inventory more than 2000 cell phone.  Here is Sandy managing the numbers: Gary Thompson, Randall Reiffel, and Kevin’s coffee mug on the "assembly line."

Mobile Satellite dishes for voice and data communication are in these kits.  Gary is opening a Satellite Disk container.  This was tiring and meticulous work.  Even with fork lifts and pallet jacks, there was a lot of lifting to do.  So it was tiring and time consuming.

What Sandy and I wanted to get out of this to understand the range of national assets that could be drawn out for a disaster.  Counting these items may have been the hard way to do this, but it worked and we have a good idea of what is there (and how much!)

EOC Class
We took a break from the inventory assignment to get oriented to work in the EOC. That requires getting another background check, more fingerprints and a new ID.

All the resources – Red Cross, Salvation Army, FEMA, Law enforcement, Fire, all have seats at the table.

To use this system we have phones, Web based tool for facilitating Emergency Operations Center Communications – (Web EOC). In previous disasters we have worked out of the center to manage shelter operations, and coordinate with other groups.

That is all the news that is fit to click.

Kevin & Sandy

SANDPIPER STUDENT HOUSING FIRE

From Kevin & Sandy McCoy, Volunteers

It is just not meant to be. We were about to start our afternoon walk when Mario [Chapa, Staff Emergency Services Specialist] called. “We have another UT Student housing fire.”  

Mario and Worth [Haggerton, Staff partner Services & Planning Specialist] had meetings and wanted to know if we could be downtown by 3:30 in order to wait for students returning from work or school.   

 

We loaded up the Jeep with our gear and were on our way. The fire was at 2810 Rio Grande – only two blocks from the Student Housing Fire 4 days ago! This fire started at the join where two buildings had been built side by side. That created a thin void, and it was in this void where the fire started. The building was quite old but had been remodeled several times. A few apartments were damaged badly, and several others had water damage. Some vehicles were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and were also damaged.

By the time we arrived Mario had a damage assessment done and many of the students had been worked with. The Dean of Students at the university was very helpful in arranging for alternative housing, excuses for late assignments, etc. The housing complex was working very quickly as well to clear up the damage and start repairs.

Worth was there with the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) and students and firefighters stopped by for water and a snack. Only a few apartments had been badly damaged and we helped those folks as best we could. By the end of the day the Red Cross Team had worked with 22 students. Everyone had a place to stay and their next few days of food and shelter arranged. We only had to help out in a few special cases due to the resourcefulness of the students and the help of the Dean.

The students spoke highly of the fire department for saving as much as they could and for how quickly they were able to get the fire under control. The fire department also had community support person at the scene. Some students were at school, and others were at work. So we stayed until students had been notified, and had time to make it back. They were allowed into the building to get their possessions, and we assisted the late arrivals that needed it.

Jaylie Mecray and her dad Jay Mecray live on Rio Grande Drive. They came by to see the fire trucks and we inducted Jaylie as our youngest volunteer and gave her a very official Red Cross Disaster Services Vest.

A job well done, and with all the student issues met, we closed the scene. Sandy and I are very grateful that no one has been injured in the two fires we have worked on this week. The students are very resourceful in making their own arrangements, and grateful for the assistance they receive.

VOLUNTEERS KEVIN AND SANDY MCCOY IN ACTION

Sandy and I went for a walk this afternoon. It is about a three mile walk to a favorite coffee place, and we had taken all the dogs with us - the sun shining and the weather gorgeous after our brief cold snap. We were just heading home when we got the call that we were needed at a University of Texas housing fire. Well, we picked up the pace and were home in a flash.

We then received a call from our Disaster Action Team captain – Bill Dorman, asking how many comfort kits and Client Assistance Cards we had on hand. Shortly thereafter we had loaded the jeep and were on our way. The reason he was asking was that it looked as if there might be as many as 27 students/coop residents in the coop house that was damaged by the fire.  He also asked us to redirect to another coop property – Whitehall on Nueces Street. The fire itself was on Rio Grande Street about two blocks from where our daughter Mandy works.

We arrived at the Whitehall Coop residence which was to serve as our client services base of operation. We arrived just as a long line of students wound their way there from the site of the fire. It was a curious procession especially as one of the students was carrying a full scale Paper Mache Narwhal! 

We set up shop and started talking to the folks most impacted by the fire, who lived on the third floor. Next we interviewed the students on the second floor that had water damage.  The remainders of the students suffered no damage, but were displaced since the electricity and utilities were shut off until repairs can be made. Bill Dorman - our DAT (Disaster Action Team) captain - had provided us with a damage assessment that was helpful.

We also met a representative from the CO-OP and she was able to arrange for housing, food, and transportation to the new housing for all the coop residents! That meant that we only had to worry about the smaller number of students who lost their clothing, bedding, and personal food in the fire.

The casework plan in place we interviewed the students and offered them Client Assistance Cards where appropriate (based on the interview and damage assessment).

The fire was caused by a glue gun that had been left on after working on a student project. They had a party to complete the project and unfortunately it lasted until dawn, and it looks like the clean up was less than effective. They slept, and then left for sailing, and sometime during the day the glue gun caught the cardboard on fire.  The Dean of Students came in to offer assistance to the students.

Lonnie Williams came and supervised the client case work. Worth stopped by with the ERV, and we got additional comfort kits from him. Sue Gaines was our CAC (Client Assistance Card) activator. By 8:30 we had done all the work with the students that needed assistance, and all the students had shelter, food, and immediate needs of clothing and bedding handled. We could not have done it that quickly except for the cooperation that we received from the CO-OP. They were fantastic.

Most of the fires we respond to are single family dwellings, so this was a bit of a change of pace for us. The students were very appreciative of the help they received, and the CO-OP really stood by them.

Kevin McCoy