Hurricane Ike Dispatcher Assistance: Supplies Needed

[x635 4,066]

Dear Friends:

The Dispatchers at 60-Control need your help! We have received an e-mail from 911 Cares (www.911CARES.com) requesting supplies, clothing and toiletries for dispatch centers located in Galveston, Orange and Beaumont Texas. Now that the storm has passed 911 Cares has been working with the Texas Telecommunicators Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT) Coordinator, Texas NENA and National NENA to confirm the need and start this very important activation. This request is for the many dispatchers that have been working since hurricane Ike landed. The dispatchers are running out of fresh clothes and daily needs. We are only beginning to see what the losses are for these many 9-1-1 heroes since most have been working for days and have been unable to check their homes.

Here is the plan! Please collect the following items:

 Adult clothes of any sizes (See note below)

 New shoes and boots (no used items)

 Socks (new)

 Toiletries (soaps, lotion, shampoo, combs, baby powder)

 Waterless Hand Sanitizer

 Paper products ( toilet paper, tissues, paper towels)

Non perishable food items

 Snack/Candy (Avoid items that may melt)

 Things to help time pass (magazines, puzzles, cards)

Imagine your own dispatch center or facility after three days of eating everything in the cabinets, what's left? Get things like ice tea mix, coffee, sugar, creamer, and snack stuff, etc. These dispatch centers are in evacuated areas of Texas so they can't just send someone to a FEMA shelter to get stuff. At this time, we are not asking for money or gift card donations since there is no mechanism to shop locally yet (everything is closed or damaged) and we don't have a list of specific needs other than what is listed above.

CLOTHING NOTE. We are all adults, so please take this in the spirit intended. During our Katrina Activation, we had amazing stuff donated. That being said, some people just sent whatever was in their musty attic. These agencies have NO fresh water, no washing machines, no dryers, etc.

PLEASE WASH EVERYTHING you send! Let them open a "Downey fresh" box from you, not a nightmare

Donations will be collected starting Monday, September 22 – Friday 26, 2008. Items can be delivered to the main office of D.E.S., 4 Dana Rd., Valhalla, NY. For additional information, please contact us at 60controlcad@Westchestergov.com.

The Communications Staff at 60-Control thanks you for your support!

[Guest]

Im all for helping people out. But this is the responsibility of their employer not me or you. I could see if they were doing this for free, but they are getting paid, and if its a work issue they should be taking care of them. If they have no access how will the supplies get to them?

Edited September 19, 2008 by roofsopen

[RescueKujo 130]

Im all for helping people out. But this is the responsibility of their employer not me or you. I could see if they were doing this for free, but they are getting paid, and if its a work issue they should be taking care of them.

That's a nice, positive attitude. While I have not lost anything in our wildfires out here, in 2003 while I was at work my wife and stepdaughter evacuated, as did my parents. If I had lost anything, was it my employers responsibility? I did have coworkers lose everything, and nationwide my company banded together to help their coworkers, as we did for Katrina and other National Disasters.

This is a request to help your fellow humans, who not by their own actions but by a force of God have lost everything. I pray if this ever happens to you no one looks the other way.

If they have no access how will the supplies get to them?

I believe there are relief agencies that are able to deliver to the affected areas. If these people have lost everything, maybe the stores in the area were destroyed also?

[Guest]

Its not my attitude, its probably just that I have enough insurance to cover my behind. These people are asking for bare janitorial supplies that should be provided by their employer. Ask anyone who is on the job in Florida what they have on hand during the course of the year and these people should have had it to. Im sorry I have no sympathy for people that lived at sea level with no flood insurance especially after Katrina and I saw first hand how that destroyed NOLa. I went to NOLa cause the NOFD needed our help, not our money or our TP, but needed us to fill in so they could attend to their family's and get a break. Its not my responsibility to look out for other people when the risks of living in an area are known.

[CPAGE 2]

Ok so it was not the people of all 50 states to send stuff on 9-11 but they all did they help put new work boots and other gear on the brothers that work at the site. They also sent tooth paste and brush and TP and canned food down to the site. So they should not have did that.

Man you need to get a grip bro it is called people helping people that is what it is all about that is what we do.

CP

[Guest]

Im not even going to respond to that, how the hell can you compare 9/11 to a flood, real classy.

[CPAGE 2]

Im not even going to respond to that, how the hell can you compare 9/11 to a flood, real classy.

People needed help and people help we had 9-11 they had that. That was the same thing to them. Get a grip dude it is the same thing when people need help.

CP

[DOC22 1]

Its not my attitude, its probably just that I have enough insurance to cover my behind. These people are asking for bare janitorial supplies that should be provided by their employer. Ask anyone who is on the job in Florida what they have on hand during the course of the year and these people should have had it to. Im sorry I have no sympathy for people that lived at sea level with no flood insurance especially after Katrina and I saw first hand how that destroyed NOLa. I went to NOLa cause the NOFD needed our help, not our money or our TP, but needed us to fill in so they could attend to their family's and get a break. Its not my responsibility to look out for other people when the risks of living in an area are known.

It IS an attitude. If you don't want to help your brothers and sisters out, then don't. But you deffinitely need to take a step back, and let those who want to help ouy do so. You have insurance out the ying yang? Good for you, but not everybody can or does. We have all read what you think, so now it's time to let go.

[JBE 328]

And when the employer doesn't do the right thing, you pass the hat around for someone in need. 10-13 party anyone???

Edited September 20, 2008 by JBE

[JetPhoto 626]

Dutchess 911 is also doing the same project, a few sites have been set up to receive the supplies over the next week, I believe Fairview & a East Fishkill station are involved and I believe a third is also involved but I don't remember who

[FFD941 20]

All I have to say on this topic is what goes around comes around.

I sure hope that if this happened to me that my brothers and sisters will be there to help me.

So lets get together and show our brother's and sisters that we will do the same.

[Guest]

All you are doing is enabling. Dont be the guy that gets jammed up for taking supplies from work, that would be stealing.

[calhobs 110]

All you are doing is enabling. Dont be the guy that gets jammed up for taking supplies from work, that would be stealing.

let me ask a question? If a fellow brother or sister at work just came in for there 3day 24 hour shift and this person just noticed that they left their wallet home all credit cards and a cash. Now they have no money for meals, would you lend them some bank or would that be enabling them?

[jack10562 414]

These people were ravaged by a powerful category 2 hurricane. A VERY large swath of Texas was for all intents and purposes destroyed. Some areas still have no power, or water, and it will be weeks or more, just cleaning up the mess.

I think that we can send along some basic supplies out to help some of "OUR OWN" in need.

If you can't help out, then move along. Next.

Here is an example of what was going on during the storm:

A house burns uncontrolled in a flooded neighborhood as Hurricane Ike approaches the Texas coast, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008, in Galveston, Texas. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The surge before the storm swamps Galveston Island, Texas, and a fire destroys homes along the beach as Hurricane Ike approaches Friday, Sept. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

[Guest]

You guys are really missing the point. By anyone sending supplies, which by now is fruitless as if they do not have what they are requesting they are ankle deep in excrement, you are just telling these municipality's that they can rely on others for things they should have been providing! If someone at work needed to borrow money once or twice no problem, but when its every time you are at work are you going to do the same thing?

[Guest]

Oh yeah and those two pics of houses burning, those people are the luckiest ones! Why? Cause they probably didnt have flood insurance, but they definitely had fire!

[x129K 1,393]

they can rely on others for things they should have been providing!

[DOC22 1]

I can see that at this point this thread is becoming less constructive/productive. If it continues in this direction, it will be locked. As Jack10562 said "If you can't help out then move along"

NUFF SAID!!!

[AFS1970 504]

Either donate or don't donate, that is a personal choice each of us will have to make more than once. But I am offended by the way this thread is leading, for one reason:

If this were a 10-13 party for a Police Officer, Firefighter, EMT or other field personnel there would likely be no debate held, the brothers would do what they always do and step up to the plate. This thread is about helping out dispatchers, who are often the red headed step children of the Emergency Services anyway, and all of a sudden we are enabling them because they live in a flood prone area, that they probably grew up in?

[x635 4,066]

Some of these dispatchers lost EVERYTHING.....they continue to go to work because they are dedicated professionals and are in some cases, mandated, but don't have homes to go back to. Many of these people continue to work while their families are in shelters hours away, in dispatch centers that are remote or have become very difficult to get to.

I agree with some of the notions that people in these areas should expect these types of things, but on the same token, what happens if one day, someone said your hometown and your house in Westchester where you have lived many years was prone to earthquakes, and you needed to evacuate? Your family leaves, you stay at work, and then you lose your house. Now, you're stuck at the dispatch center, and all the bosses and everyone else are worrying about other things somewhere besides the dispatch center, roads are impassable, you're operating with a bare bones crew, and stores are closed.

Do I think in the future this is an issue that needs to be addressed proactively? Yes, of course. But right now they're asking for help, not handouts.

Many of these dispatchers have lived in this area for their entire lives. Most make very little money, and can't afford to live elswhere, or don't want to.

[Oswegowind 17]

Wow, roofsopen...do you know how long it takes to collect on insurance. No one is asking you to go without so they can go with. You should find a hole and crawl into it, and never come back out!

As for those that plan to help our comrades in Texas and all the other places past and future...Kudos to you! Don't fall into the depression that encompasses "that guy" on this site!

[FFD941 20]

Dutchess 911 is also doing the same project, a few sites have been set up to receive the supplies over the next week, I believe Fairview & a East Fishkill station are involved and I believe a third is also involved but I don't remember who

That is correct Fairview (Dutchess) is a drop site for any supplies